Trout Slayer, Big Sky Brewing Company

 Before I started my review of Trout Slayer, I took a peek at what other people thought of it.  Of all the words used to describe it, one seemed to stick out.  Wheat.  A page of Ratebeer with ten reviews produced the word sixteen times.  The first ten reviews on BeerAdvocate clocked twenty!  This is even more surprising when you take into account most of these reviews follow the basic ASTMO format.  That format usually results in words like fruity, citrus, bitter, grassy, etc.  What does it mean for something to taste like wheat?  It sounds so benign, like ordering fried rice and having the dominant flavor actually be the rice.  On the other hand, the Italians would argue in favor of the main ingredient being a large portion of the flavor.  The question here is whether this Montana beer is Chinese or Italian.  That wasn’t too much of a logical leap, was it?

It's German.

By the way, ASTMO stands for Appearance, Smell, Taste, Mouthfeel and Overall.  It’s used by many as a standard format, ensuring all the bases are covered and making it easy to compare reviews.  I personally like substituting Appearance and Smell with Pour and Aroma.  Not only does it make the acronym classier, but it turns it into PATMO, which just sounds much more revelatory.

Hang in there Johnny!  Just write what you see!

But enough with the musings over a beer’s ethnicity and biblical references, on to Big Sky Brewing's Trout Slayer.

That head looks pretty fine.  Although it dissipated quite rapidly.  It still exhibits all the smooth, small bubbliness of the style, just at a half centimeter thickness.  It smells... like wheat.  I still don’t know what that means, though.  Any esters are sharp and faint.  Okay, who used lager yeast on a wheat beer?  Seriously, how did you make the beer so clear, crisp and lager-y?  It even tickles my nose when I burp!  I bet it’s the stronger than average hop notes for a wheat beer.  I guess weird things happen out in the wilderness of Montana where nobody’s looking.  (With fewer than 7 people per square mile, that’s understandable.)  It’s not bad, I think.  I don’t really know.  No!  I do know!  It is not bad!  Past that I don’t know, though.  Hmm...  Give it a try and let me know what you think.  Really, I need to know where to put my fingers.