Saturday, March 3, 2012

I'm sorry. It's called what?

Brewery: Lagunitas Brewing Co.
Location: Petaluma, CA
Name: Censored
Type: Red ale
ABV: 6.75%
Apparently, the original name of this beer was a tad on the iffy side. In fact, Lagunitas says that its name was "originally derived from an origin so heinous that we cannot reveal its aboriginal oregeny." They're very sorry about it, however. And to get everyone on the same page, Lagunitas Brewing offers up the phonetic pronunciation of their name on every bottle, "lah-goo-knee-tuss." Even without knowing what Censored was before drinking it, you can look at it and tell this is a red ale in all of its auburn glory. In fact, the color of the beer looks very close to the color of the bottle it came from and the head is an ecru-esque color. The nose is there. It's not a very imposing feature, though. You get a good splash of freshly baked bread and a sweet hint of caramel from the malt. Hops are sort of present, slightly floral and citrus but you may have to really work to get them. There is a note of alcohol throughout. The beer has a nice mouthfeel to it, almost creamy. The carbonation is fairly crisp. Much like a beer bruschetta, bread is the underlying flavor of Censored. You get some nice caramel notes from the malt and the hops that show up were surprising due to their weak profile in the nose. Towards the back end is a watered down earthiness that is then quickly enveloped by a strong taste of alcohol. A stronger than it ought to be taste of alcohol for a beer with an ABV of just under 7. In fact, I've had beers that were in the double digits for ABV that hid its alcohol better. As the beer warmed, the bread flavors waned and the caramel became more pronounced as did the alcohol, unfortunately. I wasn't terribly taken with this beer. I have had this in the past and I want to say I liked it better back then. It's not terrible; hell, it's a far better red ale than Killian's will ever hope to be. 


More upsetting than a half-time show middle finger.

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