A carnival of technology

Coney Island Albino Python

This beer is made by the Schmaltz Brewing Company, makers of He’brew, as part of a side-project to raise money for Coney Island.  All of the Coney Island beers are lagers, but they’re all crazy lagers.  This one bills itself as a “white lager with spices.”

The ingredients are conveniently listed on the website, including the spices used, so I don’t have to ramble on about finding hints of cardamom and lavender or whatever.  The spices that are actually used are ginger, fennel and orange peel, and ginger is the most forward of those.  Two of the five malts used are wheat, and Albino Python does have a bit of the look of a wheat beer, a cloudy, orangeish gold with a fluffy head that fades all too quickly.  I do wish there was better head retention with this beer; it’s rare to have a lager you want to just smell for a while.  The malts are pretty subdued, not quite able to push their way around all the ginger on top.  The orange comes through as a sort of citrus hint, making this start to smell more like a wheat beer, along with a flowery smell that, despite what I said, I’m going to go ahead and call lavender.  Maybe that thick layer of yeast at the bottom of the bottle had a hand in it.

And then the taste, wow; it’s like a carnival.  It’s loud and bright and has too much going on to possibly take in at once, yet somehow it’s never overwhelming; it’s a light, refreshing, fun blast of color.  The ginger, again, is the most noticable part, coming through right away and staying as a sour citrus flavor builds at the edges of my tongue.  There’s a little bit of bitterness and a lot of sweet malts, and the fennel finally has a say at the end with a stage whisper of licorice on the finish.  This is a pretty interesting beer.