Lost Rhino Brewing Megafauna
Ah, yes, the india pale lager, or IPL for you acronym loving peoples — the bastard offspring of hoppy IPAs and tasty, toasty lagers. Sometimes this combination work, but mostly, it just doesn’t. At least for my caveman taste buds, it doesn’t.
Megafauna is Lost Rhino’s take on the style, and while it’s brewed with a combination of Simcoe, Saaz, Columbus, Centennial and Cascade hop varieties, it’s a rather benign beer. The hop profile brings a good bit of earthy, grassiness to the table and the lager end of the spectrum is well represented, but neither to a degree that outweighs the other.
I suppose you could call it balanced, but there’s just nothing really spectacular about this 7.5% ABV brew. It’s just sort of there. At least a portion of the proceeds goes toward the African Wildlife Foundation. So that’s good.
Appearance
A frothy stack of pillowy, white foam sits atop the golden brew.
Aroma
Bready malt, a touch of lager yeast, grain, grassy hops, maybe a touch of wheat and distant citrus make for a fairly subdued aroma.
Taste
The overall flavor of the beer is more pilsner-like than the nose let on. It has a crisp, drying character with biscuity malt notes, grain, a while sweetness and soft citrus notes. The hop profile is pretty tame, but there’s still a good bit of bite (80 IBU) to it.
Overall
Admittedly, the IPL is not one of my favorite styles of beer and I’m not sure what I was expecting from Lost Rhino’s Megafauna. It’s not a bad beer by any means. It just wasn’t what I was expecting. Perhaps a stronger hop presence would have helped steer it out of the middle of the road.
Rating: 3/5
