Goose Island Ten Hills Pale Ale Review

Name: Goose Island Ten Hills Pale Ale
Style: America Pale Ale
ABV: 6.2%

Goose Island Brewing recently added new beer to their lineup called Ten Hill Pale Ale. The story behind the name is the hops, which come from the "first ten hills" at the Elk Mountain Farms in Idaho, a hop farm which supposedly is quite reputable when it comes to making hops. Although upon closer inspection, I found out that Elk Mountain Farms is actually owned by Anhuaser-Busch, which is the parent company of Goose Island.

Also, I don't remember luscious hop farms being THAT close to downtown Chicago. In fact, I'm fairly certain that given the positioning of the skyline in the background, the hop farm would be located right smack-dab between Melrose Park & Lombard and there are definitely no hop farms in that area. Alright, enough nit-picking, let's get to the beer

Ten Hills Pale Ale pours a mildly hazy orange color with a high amount of visible carbonation.The head is quite soapy but the lacing is pretty good.

The nose has some nice orange peel and floral hop notes with some nice caramel sweetness and even a decent pale malt backbone thrown in for good measure.

The flavor is mainly floral hops, pale malts, mild citrus, lemon zest and a mildly bitter/resiny aftertaste but is otherwise fairly dry. The overall palate is pretty lightweight and comes along with some moderate carbonation, giving it a nice crisp feel.

All and all, I think Ten Hills Pale Ale is a solid addition to the Goose Island lineup and it's got a good enough flavor profile that I would have no problem buying this again if given the choice. Check it out for yourself and see what you think.

Goose Island Ten Hills - 8.5/10