Tag Archives: pale ale

Backfin Pale Ale

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Backfin Pale AleBeer-a-Day #233

- Original Gravity: 12.0 B (1.048 s.g.)
- Alcohol: 5.5 % v/v Color: Amber (~8.0 SRM)
- Ingredients: 2-Row Malted Barley, 20 lovibond Caramel Malt, 60 lovibond Caramel Malt, Filtered Water, American, English & Czech Hops, Ale Yeast.
- Brewmaster’s Taste Notes: The aroma of the Backfin Pale Ale is of mild autumn fruit surrounded by the pleasant sweetness of the caramel malts that give the beer its richness in color and mouth feel. As you drink the beer, balance of flavor is what is most evident. The malt, the hops, and the yeast each contribute, as you taste the perfect fusion of a complicated blend of carefully chosen ingredients and brewing process expertise. The beer finishes very clean, with a fresh hop spiciness. As with most Clay Pipe products, Backfin is not heavy as it goes down. Its fast mellow finish will easily allow room for the consumer to enjoy another one.

Coppery color with a finger of head. Light aroma with a bit of fruit. Malty, with a pleasant nutty bitterness. This is a quaffable beer. I like it.

Clay Pipe Backfin Pale Ale

Flying Dog Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale

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Flying Dog Doggie Style Classic Pale AleBeer-a-Day #197

Meet the Alpha of the pack … Flying Dog Classic Pale Ale is brilliant amber in color and dry hopped with buckets full of Cascades for an unrivaled hop flavor and aroma. This is a true representation of an American-style pale ale, using the finest ingredients. Flying Dog Classic Pale Ale is a multi-award winning product and is consistently ranked as one of the best pale ales in the U.S. This is what craft beer is all about.

I would have written this up long ago, but my wife likes it so much I can’t keep it in the house long enough.

Copper colored and clear. Very pretty. Hops, hops, and hops in the aroma. Nicely balanced with just a little extra kick of bitterness.

Now to hide a few bottles…

Flying Dog Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale

Starr Hill Pale Ale

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Starr Hill Pale AleBeer-a-Day #194

Starr Hill Pale Ale is another award-winning, medium-bodied, year-round favorite. Creating a fresh spin on the English Pale Ale tradition, Master Brewer Mark Thompson uses liberal hopping and Munich malt to create a crisp, aromatic blend with a bit of bite. This brew has a higher alcohol content to balance its body and bitterness.

Medium amber with a finger’s worth of head. Nice aroma with fruit and flowers. Mmmm…that’s good.

Starr Hill Pale Ale


Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale

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Kona Fire Rock Pale AleBeer-a-Day #189

A dozen years ago I was in Hawaii on a company-sponsored trip. It was the beginning of my appreciation for good beer, so I made sure to stop at the Kona Brewing brewpub.

Fire Rock Pale Ale is a crisp, refreshing “Hawaiian-style” pale ale. Its signature copper color results from the unique blend of specialty roasted malts. The pronounced citrus-floral hop aroma comes from the liberal amounts of Galena, Cascade & Mt. Hood hops added to each brew.

Seeing this in the cooler at our Hop Talk Advisory Council birthday barbecue was like a trip back in time. Nevermind that the thing is contract brewed in New Hampshire.

Light orangey copper with a tiny bit of haze. Orange zest and floral aroma. More citrus in the flavor with a pronounced bite at the end. I like it.

Kona Brewing Fire Rock Pale Ale

Mountaineer Brewing Pale Ale

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Beer-a-Day #142

From the label:

Mountaineer Pale Ale is our unique interpretation of the classic American Pale Ale. This frothy, copper-golden ale is hand-crafted using only the finest malted barley, pure water and a specially-blended brewer’s yeast. Finally, we employ generous amounts of Northwest Ahtanum and Tomahawk hops for a floral aroma and a subtle hint if [sic] citrus in the finish.

Much more floral than citrus, but with a decent amount of hop bite and a nice finish.

Mountaineer Brewing Product Line

Widmer Brothers Drifter Pale Ale

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Widmer BrothersBeer-a-Day #45

What can I say about this beyond what Ron said? Well, I can say that he spent nearly as much to send me one bottle as it cost him for the six-pack. And that he broke a number of laws and the shipping company’s rules.

Honey-colored, with an off-white that drops fairly quickly. I love the aroma of this thing; it’s just loaded with grapefruit. Medium body and not overly bitter.

I don’t know if this is the best pale ale I’ve ever had, but it’s very good. This needs further research.

Widmer Brothers Drifter Pale Ale

p.s. Thanks Ron!

Widmer Brothers Drifter Pale Ale Review

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Widmer Brothers has come up with a new brew they call Drifter; it is a pale ale and it is quite unique. I have only had something similar from a local brew pub, the Pump Station Pale from the Albany Pump Station. While unique, Drifter is true to the pale ale style. It is golden amber in color with a light caramel sweetness. It has a light to moderate hop bitterness along with significant nose presence of grapefruit and tangerine. The twist comes from the variety of hops they used, the new Summit hops, which is not your typical American pale ale Cascade or other “C” hop, nor English Fuggle or Kent Goldings.

“We crafted Drifter to make waves in the category and provide beer lovers with a new pale ale experience,” said Kurt Widmer, co-founder of Widmer Brothers Brewing. “Most pale ales are brewed with Cascade hops. Ours is truly an original, made with Summit hops known for their delicate flavor and undertones of tangerine, mandarin orange and grapefruit.”

Drifter

Drifter

I don’t know if it is the hops with their fresh citrus character or if it is just my love of these Amarillo-like hops, but this beer just tastes so fresh! It doesn’t taste like it came from a bottle, but rather off the tap from your local brew pub.

Drifter is intended to be savored (or quaffed) on a lazy summer day while drifting on the water. Saranac Pale Ale use to be my summertime “go-to beer”. Over time, I got a little tired of it and it was replaced by Southern Tier’s Phin & Matt’s Extraordinary Ale. I’m starting to look for a change again and Drifter could easily win that title.

So I’m looking at the unofficial Hop Talk rating guide I ask myself…

  • Do I really, really like it? Oh, yes.
  • Would I consider making it my “go-to beer”? Absolutely.
  • Would I go out of my way to buy this? Sure, maybe not state borders, but I will drive out of my way.
  • Would I ask my retailer to order it? Definitely.
  • Would I resort to violence if someone takes it away from me? …define violence…

I consulted with Al and neither of us have ever given a beer a perfect 5 on our ratings. Drifter comes as close as to a 5 as any other beer I have rated.

Drifter was a Silver Medal winner in the Pale Ale category at the 2006 Great American Beer Festival (GABF); the beer sails in at an ABV of 5.7% and 32 IBUs. Drifter is already available on tap in 20 select states, with six-packs on shelves in early February. The beer will launch nationwide in mid-April and will be offered year-round.