Tasting Notes: Nils Oscar: God Lager

Nils Oscar: God Lager (Sweden: Dortmunder: 5.3% ABV)

Visual: Pale gold, very small amount of carbonation. Moderate white bubbled head.

Nose: Dusty. Chestnuts. Slight sour twang. Some malt.

Body: Sweet syrup. Pineapple juice. Light bitterness. Banana. Smooth texture, but a slight thickness backing it.

Finish: Banana. Custard sweetness. Light popcorn character. Light pineapple. Shortbread. Light bitterness and nuttiness.

Conclusion:  I wasn’t quite sure what to expect of this one. It’s got a pretty good buzz around it, but I try to not get over excited on lager styles as I’ve tried too many hyped up ones that just failed to push the envelope.

This does follow the trend. Don’t get me wrong, it is tasty, but suffers slightly for being built up too much.  By itself it has just the right mix of smooth to thickness in the texture combined with a banana like sweetness and a few fruit edges. Definitely set well to drink on a hot day in the sun. Of course I live in Britain so the whole sun thing may be a tad unlikely. But hypothetically it’s a good idea.

This doesn’t do much to define or redefine the style but it is pretty proficient. Very light in bitterness but it keeps that touch needed. Very nice use of low carbonation, none of that annoying bloating fizz(Seriously, in my youth that fizz made me feel sicker than the alcohol did. Damn cheap piss water). A very competent Dortmunder

Not a beer to shake expectations, but if you chuck out your Budweiser and  replace it with this you will be doing yourself a favour.  A good beer for general summer drinking.

Background: I’ve seen this around for a while, and it turned up in “1001 beers you must try before you die”, so I grabbed this from Waitrose recently along with the previously drunk Goose Island IPA.  Lager isn’t one that has a good reputation, possibly due to so many cheap mass market pieces of piss.  I have tried some absolute belters in recent months though, so its time to look again at this much maligned set of beers. This particular one is of the Dortmunder style, not one I have drunk a vast amount of so I will have to build my knowledge by drinking more. Oh the pain. This incidentally may be my first review from Sweden, I will have to check.