#226: Canned Laughter

One of my favourite recent trends is that of canned craft beer, and it seems I'm far from alone; more and more US craft is appearing in cans on our shores. 

The latest of these are from Ska Brewing, and the ever-reliable Bradley's is where I picked mine up. 

Much praise is lavished upon Modus Hoperandi so it had to be investigated first. The dark, reddened orange hue suggests there's plenty of shtuff to this beer, and this is only reinforced by the aroma. Thick swathes of grapefruit pith and peel, packing punch aplenty. Lime marmalade and tropical fruit smoothie feature as the beers sweeter notes. On the palate there's much of the same astringent pithiness, with added pine needle bitterness. After this you get a hefty sweetness; there's much residual sugar here, manifesting itself as syrupy honey and caramel. 

Undeniably good, but the Founders Centennial IPA that followed was even better, with slightly more going on and all delivered with more gusto.

The world of beer snobbery can be ridiculously prejudiced towards lagers, even though the relatively cheap and mass produced Czech or German lagers put much high-brow 'real beer' to shame. Just imagine a world without lager, with the category of 'cheap, popular, everyday beer' occupied by farty Bishop's fucking Finger and the like.

As such, it's nice to see hip trendy folk like Ska Oskar Blues canning a craft pilsner, in the form of Mama's Little Yella. They've done a good job too, as it looks very much like a pils. Indeed, it smells very much like pils. Golden syrup, wet grain and digestive biscuit are the big players here, but there's balance to be found in the form of nice lemongrass highlights.

Overall, a malty, grainy, grassy affair and a commendable effort, though it struggles to impress like Dale's Pale Ale.

Keep the cans coming.

EDIT: Eagle-eyed readers (or just eyed readers) will know that Mama's Little Yella is in fact Oskar Blues, not Ska, so I've corrected that.