Hop City Barking Squirrel Lager

Brewer Descrip­tion

Bark­ing Squir­rel is a 5% ABV amber lager with a dis­tinct rich burnt orange colour and sub­tle noble hop aroma. Its medium body, pleas­ant hop bit­ter­ness and caramel malt sweet­ness makes it smooth and drink­able with a slight hop after­taste.

On our lat­est beer-run to Penn­syl­va­nia, I decided to try some­thing new and session-able..and since PA only sells beer by the case, it was a tough deci­sion to find some­thing new and worth the price. The deci­sion was Hop City Bark­ing Squir­rel Lager. Although I never heard of this com­pany, I was very inter­ested to try it based on the descrip­tion on the box. The result was per­fect and exactly what I was hop­ing for..a session-able amber lager that was nei­ther too hoppy, nor too malty.

Bark­ing Squir­rel poured a beau­ti­ful off-amber color with aro­mas of sweet malts and noble hops. The hops on the bill are the noble Saaz hops and Haller­tau Mit­tel­frueh. They pro­vide a true European-style taste to this lager and are a per­fect bal­ance to all the malts. (Munich, Pale 2-row, and tor­ri­fied wheat).

The taste is rather sim­ple, yet taste­ful. It is a smooth flow­ing lager with char­ac­ter. You get a big malti­ness that does over­power you with a huge sweet­ness, thanks to the hops. As I pur­chased this beer, I was look­ing for some suds that I can enjoy all day while watch­ing foot­ball. Keep in mind that Bark­ing Squir­rel would be a great tail­gate beer (and it is sold in cans!). The beer is very session-able, but as I am reach­ing towards the end of the case, I am get­ting quite bored of it.

Over­all, I enjoyed this beer for what is was. It was cer­tainly sim­plis­tic in a way, but the taste is one of the best for its style.