Jomo Lager

So last night I had Star Hill Brewery's (Charlottesville, VA) Jomo Lager - not for the first time - but I'm going to use the opportunity to review it. The Jomo Lager is a great example of a malty lager that still has strong hoppy accents to it. Usually I think you find that it's one or the other - either the round sweetness of a malty beer, or the crisp spice and aroma of a hoppy beer.

Jomo's hoppiness is just barely spicey - more aromatic - which makes it much easier to drink. I think a lot of the micro-brewery crowd get infatuated with hops because they have been so neglected by large commercial breweries. Sometimes they can go overboard as a result, making a beer with such spice that its hard to have more than one. In addition to an overpowering spice content, this type of over-hopping can totally kill the floral aromatics that are characteristic of the lighter hopping. The Jomo Lager is an excellent example of a brew that not only has a little bit of self control on the hops, but also weds it perfectly with strong malt characteristics.

I've also started reading a book on homebrewing, and the chapter I'm currently reading is going through all the different types of beer. Hopefully this will make my reviews a little more sophisticated. I'm finding already that describing beer is a lot more challenging than describing wine. The advantages of the Jomo Lager are quite obvious and fairly easy to describe, but I'm not sure that will be true of other brews.

One final note on beer I've had recently - if you haven't had JW Dundee's before, go pick it up today and see what you think. I've been working my way through a twelve pack of this as well. JW Dundee's is one of my favorite "bargain beers" - the twelve pack was under $9! The quality is great, though. Their Honey Brown Ale is probably the best known, but they also have a great Pale Ale, a balanced IPA, and yesterday I tried their Pale Bock for the first time - also tastey. I don't know exactly what a Bock is supposed to be like, so I'm not sure if it measures up to others, but I enjoyed it. JW Dundee's isn't the highest quality beer, but it is a great value buy; if the cost of sampling higher-quality brews is racking up for you, I recommend moving some JW Dundee's into the mix. I have only seen them at Harris Teeter and Shopper's Food Warehouse.