Lagerboy Speaks – WEST St Mungo

St Mungo is the patron saint of various things – the bullied, people accused of infidelity, salmon (rather strangely), and the city of Glasgow – which he inadvertently founded by building a small church on the banks of the Clyde. Fast forward a few thousand years and he also becomes the patron of Scotland’s newest lager, produced by the WEST brewery in the city (their capitals, not mine). In fact, St. Mungo’s Lager (4.9%) was only launched at the end of October 2008, so it’s possibly Scotland’s newest beer of any kind, let alone the fizzy stuff Lagerboy reaches for in his local bottle shop.

WEST themselves opened in 2006 in a converted carpet factory, and have a glamorous-looking European brewhouse and restaurant inside the refurbished Templeton Building on Glasgow Green. Tennant’s brewery they are not, as they produce all of their beers in line with the fabled (and often mentioned on the BeerCast) Rheinheitsgebot purity laws covering their allowed ingredients. As you’d expect, their brews lean heavily towards the teutonic end of the spectrum – helles, dunkels, and even a festive weihnactsbier.

According to their website, St. Mungo’s is the only lager in the UK brewed in adherence with these regulations – “WEST has selected the finest German malt and most noble hops to create a deceptively easy drinking and refreshingly different bright, clear, golden lager.” Well, it’s certainly easy to drink as the taste is incredibly light and diminishes very quickly. There’s a slight hint of Becks up front, but no aftertaste whatsoever. It’s very fizzy and pours with a quickly dispersing frothy head, but the clean taste just isn’t that interesting. St. Mungo’s Lager is undoubtedly refreshing, but unfortunately a bit lacking.

WEST Brewery website