tradewinds

It's vacation month here and things are slow and at odd hours.  Of course, if I were a better planner it wouldn't make any difference because these are things I know ahead of time, I just choose not to do anything about it.  A macro beer, getting back to "roots", is still easy enough to pick up, though.  You can't have supermarkets closing for an entire month.  You can't even really have them altering their hours significantly.  Essential work, that's what that is.  Sipping San Miguel's Manila India Pale Lager is really more of a luxury task.  Yes, it is San Miguel, but I was told it was really alright, and Cruzcampo's IPA wasn't bad.  So, might as well give it a try.

A relatively strongly aroma-ed lager, dark orangey color, and rather abundant head.  It's very heavy on the grain, but mildly sweet and bready, not grassy or toasty.  The flavor follows closely with the scent at first, but lets in a little bit of deeper bitter at the end.  It has a heavy, kind of old-fashioned lager feel, definitely not pilsner, which is interesting given the origins of San Miguel.  Still, in a warmer climate you want to feel well stocked with energy as much as you want to be refreshed.  Overall it's smooth, no spikiness or bite on the way down, but there is some feeling of lingering bitterness.  It's less an aftertaste than a vague sensation, the shadow of bitter if you will.  It develops a little more lager round feeling as it gets warmer, but the aroma maintains itself at a fresh and inviting state.

Speaking of poor planning, I found out about a beer store a couple weeks ago, put off and put off and put off going, and then this last week I was making the time - only to find it was closed for good!  Too bad, Lambeer, it wasn't meant to be.