Local Oak Brewing Co. “Euro Disco”

Style: European Pale Lager
ABV: 5.5%

Local Oak Brewing Company has quickly become one of our local favorites since they opened their doors a little over a year ago. Their ability to pretty much crush any beer style they put out has kept us coming back over and over again. Stellar sours, stouts, NEIPAs, pilsners, and lagers – the subject of this week’s new release post – keep getting pumped out as fast as the people of Winterville and Greenville can drink them. 

With that brief hint you can guess that this week we are reviewing their newly released lager “Euro Disco.” This European pale lager (a style developed as a German answer to Czech pilsners) is a smooth drinking brew crafted with Perle hops. Although not one of the noble hop varieties, Perle is an extremely popular aroma hop in Germany used to craft a wide variety of crisp clean lagers. Providing a breadth of aromas such as spice/pepper, green fruit, pine, and earth, this hop variety complements a crisp clean lager well. 

“Euro Disco” fits this bill well and was a great offering to try amongst the wide variety of styles on their tap list. Keep reading to get our full takes on the beer!

Joe’s Take

I’ve been impressed with the ability of Local Oak’s brewer/owner, Ben Self, to switch between an in your face hop juice bomb IPA and a crisp clean lager. This couldn’t be more true than when I tried their two newest beers “Trance of Rain” – a hazy IPA – and “Euro Disco” – this week’s review subject. Switching between the two styles really highlights the difference and helps you appreciate the breadth of the brewer’s capabilities. 

“Euro Disco” poured a honey golden color with a slight haze (if you want a much better photo than ours, check out Local Oak’s instagram page). The beer had an initial wispy foamy head that died down into a thin halo around the edges of the glass. It had an overall appearance of a refreshingly crisp beer that wasn’t intimidatingly opaque or dark. 

The aroma of the beer was a bit difficult for me to pick up. This may be my fault as I drank this beer after I had “Trance of Rain” potentially making more subtle aromas difficult to detect. Additionally, the beer was in the COVID normal plastic cup, making concentration of aromas difficult. However, I wasn’t expecting an aroma explosion as the beer was a clean style focusing on execution of the beer, not hop compounds. What I did detect were notes of bready malt and a slight green freshness from the hops. 

The mouthfeel of the beer was undeniably crisp. It was light-bodied with medium carbonation and had a nice drying finish. It called you back in repeatedly for another sip and as you may guess, I very graciously obliged. 

The taste of “Euro Disco” featured malt derived notes of bread crust and a slight hint of sweet caramel (more so detected on the finish for me). I enjoyed how clean and crisp the beer was and was impressed how the subtle hop aroma and bitterness enhanced the drinking experience. I am a fan of lagers that are clean but have depth of flavor, and this beer resonates with that idea. The bitterness and earthy spice imparted by the Perle hops rounded out the finish of the beer and contributed to the drying finish that helps earn this beer the “kwispy boi” title.

Drinkability is high with this beer and it goes down smooth. It even rivals “Rival Dad” – one of their recent German pilsners – as a post-lawn mowing treat…even though at this time of year not many people are mowing their lawns. 

Nick’s Take

In the midst of our winter months, and the chilly, rainy weather that has been abundant as of late, it’s pretty typical for me to reach for beers that warm me up, like an imperial stout or maybe a roasty/malty amber. However, as Joe mentioned, it’s hard to pass up any opportunity to try a new Local Oak brew, so of course I had to get “Euro Disco” despite the bleak conditions outside.

I thought that this lager looked very flavorful, crisp, and clean right off the bat. It wasn’t 100% transparent (a touch of haze in the light gold color) and I was thinking that it would carry over a lot more flavor from the malt than most other lagers. Not to mention, it produced a nice white, frothy head that slowly settled and promised some good carbonation.

I’m not often expecting light lagers to produce a lot of aroma (besides the typical hints of clean malt and maybe subtleties from the hops) because they are brewed and conditioned with typically simpler ingredients, though this is not always true. “Euro Disco” definitely presented clean malty aromas and a bit of sweetness on the nose. Joe and I agreed that the malt gave off a bready smell as well.

When I took my first sip, I was thrilled at the crisp carbonation since I had anticipated it upon my first look. Each sip after gave that same bite but it still remained a smooth drink. The medium body and slight drying finish made it very easy to consume.

In my opinion, this lager was a great balance of malty, crisp, and sweet. The bready malt flavors on each drink were tasty and pronounced, while the carbonation helped spread it around all my taste receptors. As I got a little further into the beer and its temperature rose slightly, there was some detectable sweetness for me. I was a bit intrigued, as the drying component of the beer would seem to indicate that there was not much residual sugar in the beer. Nonetheless, it was a welcome note for me (even if it was in my head).

No surprise, “Euro Disco” is very easy to drink and would be even better on a hot day to cool yourself down. If I think of food pairings, the list would almost be endless: pizza, wings, burgers, nachos, etc. Just a clean, yet flavorful lager to enjoy with your favorite bar food or watching sports. Local Oak has a great cerveza that they typically release in the summer months, but I’m also hoping they might consider bringing this one back as well.