Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Review

Name: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Style: American Pale Ale (APA)
ABV: 5.6%
IBUs: 38

During the first four years I was doing this blog, I reviewed many beers but there were some that I simply missed for reasons that are beyond me. I’m not speaking of rare beers but craft beers that are widely consumed. One of those beers is Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, a beer which I remember from my dad’s old company picnics from back in the mid-90’s as it was one of the beers of choice of my Dad’s younger co-workers who were fresh out of college.

Now I’ve reviewed quite a few beers from Sierra Nevada but never this one and my reason is because….well, I though I already reviewed it. That is, until, I dusted off the website and looked at the archives. Am I ashamed? No, but just a tad bit embarrassed.

Appearance – Dark orange with a mild amount of haze to it, along with some abundant carbonation. The head itself is pretty foamy and there's a healthy amount of lacing left behind.


Aroma – Caramel malts dominate the nose but behind that are some bitter and light piney hoppiness.


Taste – Much like the nose, the caramel malts hit you on the front of the palate. This gives away to the bitter and light piney hops in the back with the malts taking a back seat. The aftertaste has a lingering hop bitterness along and a light maltiness.


The balance of hops and malt is optimal here and while it’s nothing new, it’s a very easy drinking beer. As such, I can see why this is a standby for many beer drinkers everywhere; Myself included. As the old saying goes: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

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

Badger Hill High Road Everyday Ale Review

Name: Badger Hill High Road Everyday Ale
Style: International Style Pale Ale
ABV: 5%

**Update: I was informed that this is, in fact, an International Style Pale Ale and uses a variety of hops, malts, found in different beer styles. I have made the changes needed to reflect this information**

It's time to look at another beer from Badger Hill Brewing. This time we have their High Road Everyday Ale, which is classified as an International Style Pale Ale. It is described as a sessionable ale, which utilizes ESB yeasts, Pilsner Malts and a Pale Hop Profile Variety.

High Road pours a very hazy wet straw yellow color with a soapy head. The visible carbonation is quite high and leaves behind no trace of lacing.

The aroma comes off initially as surprisingly fruity. I'm picking up notes of orange peel, mangoes, and citrus hops. The back end leans toward notes toffee and pale malts.

Interestingly enough, the flavor is rather grassy and pils-like up front with notes of barley, pale malts, and light citrus hops. The aftertaste is dry yet fruity at the same time. The overall palate is very lightweight but heavily carbonated. With that said, it's quite crisp.

In my previous draft of this review, I said that I thought that High Road suffered a bit from an identity crisis, and was a bit perplexed by the overall flavor while assuming it was a blonde ale. Knowing that it is, in fact, not a blonde ale, I can give this beer a more deserving score. While I'm still not exactly a huge fan of the "Fruity-Pils" flavor, it's still a decent beer. I'd still say try it out and decide for yourself.

Thanks to Brent from Badger Hill for clearing this up!

Badger Hill High Road Everyday Ale - 7.5/10

Deschutes Hop Trip Review

Name: Deschutes Hop Trip
Style: American Pale Ale
ABV: 5.5%

You know the old phrase "If you love it so much, why don't you merry it?" Well I might as well be asking Deschutes Brewing this very question because in the past 7 months I have reviewed two other fresh hop beers from them: Fresh-Squeezed IPA and Chasin' Freshies. What I have here now is the trifecta of fresh hop beers from Deschutes: Hop Trip. Unlike the previous fresh hop beers, both of which were IPAs, this beer is an American Pale Ale.

Hop Trip pours a hazy orange color with a foamy head. The lacing is quite abundant and the carbonation has a mild appearance.

Citrus hops and grassiness are quite prevalent in the aroma upfront, with some lemon zest and mild toffee notes. I'm also getting hints of yeast in here as well.

The flavor takes on more of a piney hop characteristic and putting the citrus hops more in the background. Just like in the nose, the lemon and toffee-malt notes are still present here. There is also a bitter resin quality which makes up the aftertaste.

The body is quite heavy along with some stronger-than-normal carbonation. It's a little harsher on the palate than desired but nothing that isn't manageable.

Out of all of the fresh hop offerings from Deschutes, this one is the runt of the litter. It's got a good taste and you're making a bad choice by trying this out, but it lacks the vibrancy & complexity of it's counterparts.

Deschutes Hop Trip - 7.5/10

Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale Review

Name: Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale
Style: American Pale Ale
ABV: 6.5%

Dale's Pale Ale, one of the staples of my beer fridge while I was living in Chicago! What I lacked in Surly, it was made up for in Dale's Pale Ale. Now that I'm back in Minnesota and right across the bridge from Superior, I now have both. It's like karma has rewarded my good deeds with beer and now both Surly & Oskar Blues are now regulars in my fridge.

Oskar Blues is a brewery based out of Colorado and are available in several states, though I've heard whisperings and rumors on Beer Advocate that they will distributing here to Minnesota sooner than expected on account of Oskar Blues being a guest tap down in Minneapolis. We shall see for the time being.

Anyways, let's take a look at Dale's Pale Ale!

Dale's Pale Ale pours a mildy hazy orange color with a fairly foamy head, good lacing and some mild carbonation visible on the sides of the glass.

The nose has a fairly prevalent not overly strong floral and piney hoppiness up front to go along with the caramel malts and grassy scent. There's also some mild apricot fruitiness in the aroma as well.

There is a sudden citrus hoppiness in the flavor complimented by grapefruit, apricot, floral hops, and caramel malts. The grassy/earthiness that was in the nose is nowhere to be seen here. There is a fairly strong resin & malty aftertaste that is surprisingly balanced.

It terms of weight, it's a couple sets above moderate and has a slight thickness to it, but the carbonation is very light here so you're able to take in all the flavors without having to worry about irritating your palate.

To me, having this again is like hanging out with an old friend, spending the afternoon together, having lots of fun and realizing why you guys used to hang out together so much in the first place.

It's a very well rounded and balanced pale ale. It's well balanced profile of malts, fruitness and hops make this an extremely easy beer to recommend. It's not "Zombie Dust" caliber by any means, but it's good enough to keep me coming back for more. It's also decently priced so that also works!

Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale - 8.5/10

Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale Review

Name: Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale
Style: American Pale Ale (APA)
ABV: 5.9%

Earlier this year, Kona Brewing started distributing to Minnesota and they are the first brewery from Hawaii to be available commercially here. I've had a few of their beers before and thought they were good but I never got a chance to review them. To my knowledge, they are the only major brewery in Hawaii that distributes out of state.

Tonight, I'll be reviewing their Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale. Like most of their lineup, the beers constantly remind you that it's from Hawaii with most of their beers being named after things in Hawaii....and serves as a reminder that I will probably never visit Hawaii in my lifetime...

Kona Fire Rock pours a reasonably clear yellow color with a very slight haze. The head has a very filmy appearance which has pretty good retention with lots of lacing and some mild looking carbonation.

Floral Hops & yeasts are present in the nose along with some pale malts, slight toffeeiness, and mild resin.

The flavor starts out with some noticeable piney, citra, and dry hoppiness before settling into a yeasty and somewhat malty finish. The aftertaste has a light citrus characteristic to it.

The body is more on the lighter side with a very thin watery feel to it. The carbonation is in-between mild and moderate so it gives it a crisp feel.

While it doesn't do anything out of the ordinary as far as APAs go, you really can't go wrong with it at the same time. Kona Fire Rock plays it safe and the end result is a pretty good American Pale Ale.

Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale - 8/10

My First Homebrew! (Which doesn't suck!)

Today I'm going to change things up just a bit, for I will be looking at my very own homebrew! As for a review, I have something special in-store so stay tuned!

For my birthday last year, I received a homebrew kit from Northern Brewer and it came with a starter kit for some Caribou Slobber, which is Northern Brewer's clone of Big Sky's Moose Drool. Well, about 3 weeks after I got it, I tried my hand at homebrewing. Upon taking my first sip, I quickly realized something went horribly wrong. I was expecting a nice brown ale, but instead I got a rather sour, lemon-like flavor that reminded me of a Berlin Weisse. I love my Wild Ales and all, but this was horrible! Using my CSI-like detective work, I pinpointed where I had botched it up completely.

Amongst my missteps:

• Boiled for way too long
• Possible contamination of equipment
• Improperly bottled the beer, caps were attached loosely instead of being secured properly
• Left it in the below freezing temperatures of our garage.

Reeling from my failure, I sort of forgot about homebrewing and moved on with other things that were happening in my life at that point.

Fast forward 6 months later, I am moving my stuff around the house and noticed my homebrew kit was amongst the boxes I was moving. I opened the box, saw my equipment, which had gathered dust and I said to myself "Eh, why not?" I made the drive over to Northern Brewer and picked up a couple of kits to try out and experiment with. I picked up a Sierra Madre Pale Ale & White House Honey Porter kit to experiment with, so I decided to try out the Sierra Madre kit first to see how it would go this time.

Sierra Madre is Northern Brewer's answer to the West Coast Style Pale Ale. When brewing this, there were 4 hop additions added into this. Since I'm not 100% familiar with what hops do what or what they taste like (aside from Fuggle Hops), I could only assume it would have a citrus like characteristic to it.

Even though it's wort, it's already better than my first failed batch.

After letting it boil, cool off and siphoning the beer into the jug (AND making sure that I avoided the pitfalls of before), I wiped the sweat off my brow and had a beer after the process. 2 weeks later, it came time to siphon the beer into the bottle and bottling it correctly.

Well, here we are 4 weeks after I first started the brewing process and finally able to try out the result of my efforts.

Behold!

Well it certainly has a different smell to it; It has some very strong caramel malt notes and the hops are very fresh-smelling! But I'm not getting any sourness, so....yay for progress? Well enough stalling, let's taste the damn thing; You know.....for science!

Pretty much like the taste, very strong caramel malts up front and the citra-hop taste is very fresh but not quite as strong as the caramelized malts, in fact the combined flavors give it an almost Mango-Like quality to it. Fruity-tasting with a bit of caramel and piney hops! Body is more on the heavy side, and the carbonation is mild.

I thought it was pretty good, all things considered. It tasted like a Pale Ale, albeit a bit more fruity than I'm used to. I'm also not sure what the ABV on this is, but I got a good buzz going after having a bottle of this stuff.

Wanting a second opinion on my efforts, I gave one to my stepdad to see what he thought of it as he has homebrew experience. His verdict? For a first timer, very good and tasty. A little maltier than most Pale Ales out there but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

Overall, I'm glad it turned alot better than my last effort. This Monday I will be bottling my White House Honey Porter and will have a look at that once it's been bottle conditioned long enough.

Cheers!

Flat Earth Livid Planet Review

Name: Flat Earth Livid Planet
Style: American Pale Ale
ABV: 6%

About a month and a half ago, I reviewed Flat Earth Brewing's Angry Planet Pale Ale, which is considered by some to be the brewery's own flagship beer though this is subject to debate amongst people I know. In the time since my review, Flat Earth just released a slightly hoppier, dry hopped version of Angry Planet called Livid Planet. From what I understand, it will be a year-round offering.

The label is fairly identical to Angry Planet, except it has an even more pissed off Earth getting messed up by hop-meteors and is retaliating by throwing hops back at the unfortunate soul who happens to be nearby. Planetary justice at it's absolute finest!

To start out, it pours a dark clear Amber color with a fairly frothy head and high amount of carbonation activity in the glass. It also leaves behind a good amount of lacing inside of the glass.

The nose had a pretty strong Citrus and Floral Hop notes upfront, with yeasts and toffee in the background. The flavor has some fairly strong floral and citrus hop notes upfront, supplemented by a malty-caramel sweetness. The finish is mainly a resin bitterness and barley-like. Aside from the higher hop levels, it tastes pretty much as the same as Angry Planet. In both the nose and the flavor, you can feel the dry hops at work.

Body wise, it's moderate in weight just like Angry Planet. The main difference here is that the carbonation is stronger here whereas it was more moderate in Angry Planet.

Although it's a good beer, Livid Planet suffers from a bit of an identity crisis. Angry Planet reminded me of an English IPA because of it's sweetness and balanced flavor, which is one of the reasons I enjoyed it. Livid Planet doesn't quite reach what some would consider to be an American IPA but I can't help but feel that the flavor is off-balance; It's like they took Angry Planet, threw more hops on top of it and didn't change anything else which I feels affects the overall quality of the flavor. It's a decent offering from Flat Earth Brewing, but if you want a better and more balanced beer, go with Angry Planet instead.

Flat Earth Livid Planet - 7.5/10

Northbound Smokehouse Light Rail Pale Ale

Recently there has been a huge growth of taprooms & brewpubs in the past couple of years here in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. Due to my limited budget as of right now, I can only eat out every once in a while and it's cheaper for me to buy beer at the store than get it on tap at a bar. I expect this to change a month from now when I'm at my new job and making some real money. I decided to treat myself for my new job so yesterday I decided to make a visit to the Northbound Smokehouse.
Northbound Smokehouse opened up last year and is located at the corner of 38th St. E and 28th Ave S.

If the fermentation tanks were not visible, you would think this is just another neighborhood watering hole. So I went in, had a seat at the bar and asked the waitress what beer was worth trying out and decided on the Light Rail Pale Ale and ordered a Bacon Cheeseburger to go along with it.

To start out, it pours a mildy hazy orange color with a little bit of carbonation making their way to the top. Not really any lacing to be had so in finishes rather clean.

The nose has a moderately pungent aroma of citrus, piney hops, malts, and barley. The citrus and malt notes in particular give this beer a rather sweet aroma but not overtly so.

The flavor has more of a piney hop flavor to it, with the citrus and malt sweetness taking more of a backseat and giving it more of a balance than the nose. Aftertaste is a dry resin flavor which has a bit of dryness to it.

The body is moderate in weight and the carbonation is also fairly light. It's not crisp but it's very easy to drink and it helps with the food pairing.

In terms of Pale Ales, there's nothing extraordinary about it and that's just fine! What it is good at is that it's just a solid Pale Ale and it pairs very well with food. You can tell by talking with the staff at Northbound that they're very passionate about beer and that's always refreshing! If you're ever in the Longfellow neighborhood you should stop by, and grab a pint; You will not be disappointed.

Northbound Smokehouse Light Rail Pale Ale - 8/10