It is very odd but there is precious little on the Interwebs about this beer. Granted, I haven't perused the entire thing but I shouldn't have to subscribe to NexusLexis, right?
What I can say is that #Poundsign – A Trendy Lager was brewed at Against the Grain's brewery in Louisville along with Stillwater Artisanal Ales who made the trip from Baltimore, apparently. Beyond this I'm in terra incognita. I am not familiar with either brewery nor can I say that I've ever tasted beer from either of them. And so am uniquely unqualified to judge where #Poundsign fits into the overall scheme of things for AtG or Stillwater. Useless as tits on a nun, I know.
From what I can tell, the beer came out in August and I purchased a single can at Steve's Liquor on University rather recently for too much money. I suspect the high price was due to this being a beer brewed in limited quantities but also because of the color photo reproduced on the can.
#Poundsign pours a burnished light yellow color. This along with its clarity gave me the impression that I was looking at a glass of American pale lager that was trendy in the same way PBR is trendy. Where were my tight jeans and ironic mustache? As you can see my pour produced a big white head that was both pillowy and ephemeral. There was a paucity of bubbles going up the glass.
My nose found the aroma to be rather simple, yet delectable. There was a little bit of grain but a lot of bright floral hoppiness. That I did not expect. An ironic PBR-eque statement this was not. Upon tasting it I found it had a light body like an American pale lager (it's quite sessionable at 4% A.B.V.) with a mild cracker-like grain taste which also featured some subtle corn in there too. The hops were prominent just like on the nose though the floral flavor was joined by more citrusy ones. It brought the flavor of Amarillo hops to mind but I cannot find anything indicating what hops were actually used in the beer. Regardless it had a really clean, sprightly flavor, abetted by carbonation, that made me feel bad that I was drinking it in December instead of August.
On the finish those floral hops faded and were replaced by more bitter ones that tasted grassy and spicy which dried out the finish. Schaumhaftvermoegen consisted of but a few thin streaks here and there.
The floral and citrus hop flavors really surprised me. #Poundsign had a great, fresh hop taste to it. They brought with them very little bitterness, however. In a feat of lupulin agility, #Poundsign did a 180 at the finish with more Noble-tasting ones coming through to give the beer a whole different spin. It made for a tasty change of pace.
Junk food pairing: Pair #Poundsign with some Kettle Brand Salt and Pepper potato chips. The salt will enhance the malt flavor of the beer while the pepper will initially provide some nice contrast and then meld into the Noble hop flavor on the finish.
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