American Pale Ale
From notes 4-6-08 Done in a Horizontal tasting with Hazed and Infused(Boulder Beer), Ruedrich's Red Seal Ale(North Coast), and Brooklyn Pennant Ale. Eye: The poorest looking of the four beers I've sitting in front of me. No lacing, the head is just a thin sheet over the beer...if you could call it a sheet, more like a dry rotting baby blanket, some holes poking through here and there. Or perhaps like butter scraped over too much bread, or thinly stretched clouds that start to let blue through as they try to cover the realm of the visible heavens. Again, color is copper and clear. Nose: Hop aroma is faint. What I do get from the hops are a earthy aroma. Grainy aromas from the malt. Almost smells like a bag of un-milled malt, 2 or 6 row. Some caramel notes as well but more faint. Not quite what I like in an APA, I would like to see more hops and less graininess...but that's just my opinion. Tongue: Hop bitterness is astringent for a beer of this style. Usually the bitterness is rounded out quite well, this one...well,... not quite so much so. Hop flavor seems to be noble, a bit spicy, much like that of a pils, closer to the finish of the brew it gets a bit greener and more floral. Faint notes of diacetyl in this brew, tons of toasted malt, almost to the point, well not almost, but it actually does give some astringency to the beer-not quite sure if its the actual toasted malt or the 2 or 6 row, or a mashing/lautering/boiling procedure that did it, but this one has astringency and some bitterness coming from grains. Not a big fan of that. Edit: Just tasted some fruit tones most likely from fermentaion. Mouthfeel and Drinkability: This beer has a medium-heavy body, leaning towards a heavy medium as opposed to heavy itself. Carbonation is fairly normal but pricks the tongue. I won't lie, I'm not a huge fan of this beer. I don't think that this is the brewery's best offering. I'll drink what I've left, but I don't think that I'll come back to it. I guess that it is worth a look at though, just cause I didn't like it doesn't mean you won't.