Gold Leaf Lager

Gold Leaf Lager is a light, German-style all malt lager with subtle bready notes from Devils Backbone Brewing Co. of Roseland, Virginia.

Award

Specs

Brewery Description

The brewery site carries no description of the beer. The Untappd listing carries this text:

While Gold Leaf is on the lighter side, it takes five weeks to perfect this traditional German-style lager. An homage to the days when beers were made 100% from malted barley, Gold Leaf is brewed with four European malts tempered with a touch of three imported hops.

Source: Untappd (hand-read citation): Gold Leaf Lager

Tasting Notes

Not Found

Ingredients

The BeerAdvocate listing identifies the three hop varieties shown in the specs table. The earlier Untappd description gives only the number of imported hops; no yeast is named.

Hop Profile

Brewing Details

Style Context

As category context only, the Brewers Association guideline for Contemporary American-Style Lager describes a clean, crisp lager with more hop aroma and flavor than traditional American lager, at 4.1 to 5.1 percent ABV and 5 to 16 IBU. The listed 4.5% ABV fits; the listed 17 IBU is one unit above the range.

Awards History

Generated from the loaded results for this brewery and beer name, not researched separately; years not loaded are not covered.

Brewery Context

Devils Backbone Brewing Co. is in Roseland, VA. Brewery type in Open Brewery DB: Large brewery.

Links checked 2026-10-14: Website, Instagram, Untappd.

Related

• Brewery: Devils Backbone Brewing Co.
• Hop varieties: Northern Brewer, Saaz, Tettnang

Links

• BeerAdvocate: Gold Leaf Lager
• Devils Backbone: beers
• Untappd (hand-read citation): Gold Leaf Lager
• Untappd (hand-read citation): Devils Backbone beer list
• Brewers Association: beer style guidelines

Gaps

• Not Found: Tasting notes, Color (SRM), Original gravity, Final gravity, Hop form, Hop use, Hop lot or farm, Malts and grains, Yeast, Adjuncts, Water, Process. Checked dbbrewingcompany.com, dbbrewingcompany.com, untappd.com, untappd.com, beeradvocate.com, web searches recorded in the research notes, dbbrewingcompany.com.

Research Notes

• Field pass 2026-10-13: The BeerAdvocate Gold Leaf listing names Northern Brewer, Saaz and Tettnang. It gives 21 IBU, compared with the existing 17 IBU from Untappd; the existing value is retained. No new brewery beer URL was verified.
• The brewery's current beers page lists its core and specialty lineup without Gold Leaf Lager, and a guessed beer page path returned 404, so there is no beer url.
• Web search summaries mentioned a 4.9% ABV in an older award writeup and a 2009 GABF gold; neither page was opened, so neither is used.
• No 2026 medal announcement from the brewery was found.
• Researched 2026-10-13.
• Catalog.beer 2026-10-14: Catalog.beer: Gold Leaf Lager lists 4.5% ABV, 17 IBU, style "German-Style Pilsener" (entry last modified 2020-05-02). Where it differs from the brewery's own published value, the brewery's value stands.
• Deep dive pass 2026-10-14: the description on file comes from Untappd and is not extended.