Hale's Pale Ale
I stuck my nose to the rim of a fresh poured pint of Hale's Pale American Ale - and I mean wet mustache, suds on the schnoz and everything - and I drew a deep breath and found nothing. No smell. Okay, no smell. That's neither good nor bad. I suppose I wasn't expecting much from Hale's first ever beer, a simple pale ale whose recipe dates to 1983. Back then any beer that wasn't a fizzy yellow adjunct-laden lager was considered a living miracle. But today there are many 1980's beer models on the road that should have been scrapped prior to the new century. Perhaps the absent smell was telling me this was one of them. With that in mind I took a sip and got more than I expected. Hale's Pale is a modest beer of pronounced sweetness and simple corresponding bitterness. But it attends to the basic beer imperative of clean drinkability. Its design is otherwise skeletal, but respectably so. Hop flavor factors minimally, though a slight tannic edge can be detected. It is comparable to a traditional special bitter with modest, golden clarity and stylishly indifferent carbonation and suds. A no-frills beer to be certain, but very upright in its drinkability, with good pub styling, and perhaps one of Hale's best.