My friends might quote me as stating numerous times before that there are different levels of craft beer drinkers as I see them: first you have the guys that drink craft because its cool, then you have the guys that have a genuine appreciation for it and lastly you have guys that home brew their own and love to try and find something different and something new.
So when I arrived home this afternoon with these four bad boys I coerced my flatmate to participate with an open mind as we eventually started tasting and taking some notes about what we experience - ultimately it came up roughly the same for both of us. Overall the beers are extremely easy drinking and they share a strange elusive bitterness - one that is kind of there, but not really there at the same time. Somehow it manages to sneak through on the aftertaste almost. Except for the Milk Stout we did not find this beer having a very "full" mouthfeel. All in all it has a lot of what I remember and what you can expect from a lager I guess - yeastiness, crisp and clear with an almost absence of malt throughout the sip. That and that smell that I remember my pops having as a youngster on a hot summer's day...
If I had to make a choice between one of these four I would have to pick the Milk Stout as my favorite as it does display a little something extra with its almost fuller mouthfeel and the slightly porter-style smokey finish. Oh, and have I forgotten about how banana-ey the Black Label comes through...good old days...
In summary I guess after drinking beer that has been brewed the same way for 118 years you can expect people to be looking out for a bit of change...at least I do.