3X The Brooklyn

I've drunk a lot of Brooklyn Lager in my time. It's one of those go to beers that you know you can trust to be what it is... a Great Lager. But only up until recently however it's only been available in the UK in one form - the bottle. These days though, over here you can get Brooklyn Lager in a bottle, in a can and even on draught in certain bars.

When a friend passed me along a couple of cans of the stuff the other day, I thought I'd have a little taste off between the three to see if there was much (if any) difference. I was expecting at the start that there wouldn't be. I had all three of these out of a glass just to clarify. (as it should be...)

So after a shift of lugging beer around all day, I jumped on my bike and cycled 5mins down the road to Alfred to grab a half of Brooklyn Lager on Draught. This would be the first of the three in my list, and I already had thoughts in my head of what I'd be expecting, after all I've drunk plenty on draught before. It's a beer I order and don't really think about it when I'm drinking it - you know the type... but when I actually started to think about this half, my views started to waver a little. Sure it was a refreshing beer, but I thought it was a touch sweet and vegetal... possibly a little stale. I don't think it was as fresh as we know Brooklyn Lager can be.

Next up I went for a can of the stuff. I've never had a can of Brooklyn before, in fact it was my friend passing me over a couple of these that made me write this post in the first place. This smelled fresh. It also smelled really clean too. The taste was only a slight improvement on the draught version though. Fresher and crisper yes, but still a slight sweetness and vegetal note was putting me off a little bit. A better clean bitterness in the finish is had in the can, but asked for a better 'flavour retention', it's pretty much on par with draught.

Last but not least was a bottle of BL. The bottled stuff was how I was introduced to the stuff and what I've usually always stumped up for. Having this straight after the can I notice an obvious improvement on the caramel malts in the nose. Now this smells and looks like a Vienna Lager. It's a perfect pour too... pouring into  a glass from a can puts far too much carbonation into the beer resulting in a big head which isn't ideal.

This is just much better than the previous two. To me it tastes just how Brooklyn Lager should. But maybe that's all in my head. Bottled BL was what I had first, and when I first did it was a revelation, so thinking about it, perhaps the other two will never live up to it.

I think the main thing I've learnt from this though is pretty simple. I've enjoyed Brooklyn Lager from bottle and draught in the past, and I reckon it would be the same for the cans. I spoiled that enjoyment tonight by trying to over analyze each method of dispense and think about each too much.

So if there's anything that I can take away from this, it's this:

If you have a beer you like... don't think about the method of dispense.

Just enjoy it.