About two hours ago I got home from one of my favorite local restaurants, John's Tavern (formerly John's Buffet) in Winfield. Local beer enthusiasts, take note: this is a great place to get limited releases from Goose Island, including Illinois-only tap beers. Goose's newest tap-only beer is called Gran Gås, or "Spruce Goose" in Swedish. It is a Belgian pale/golden/blonde ale brewed with Colorado spruce tips and Swedish lingonberries. Believe it or not, this is not the first spruce beer I've had; that would be Alba.
Since I had this in a restaurant I can't really give this a thorough review. In brief:
Look: copper-gold with a flimsy head. Slightly cloudy. The restaurant isn't bright enough for me to accurately tell how this looks. To further compound matters, I'm also color blind.
Smell: I can smell my father's single malt Scotch across the table more than the beer in front of me. Hints of spruce, maybe some pear (probably from Belgian yeast).
Taste: huge blast of spruce, quickly followed by flavors of melons and pears. I've never had lingonberries, so either they aren't very strong or taste a lot like tropical fruits. Light kiss of hops add competing flavors of spice and grapefruit, so I guessed a combination of Chinook (spicy hops) and Cascade (grapefruit/citric hops). Looking at their website now, it seems it was hopped with Centennial (otherwise known as "Super Cascade") and Chinook. Hurray for palette accuracy.
Texture/Mouthfeel: semi-dry, semi-tart. Quenching. I had a second pour afterwards.
Very good, and also the most peculiar beer I've had in months.
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