It pours a deep golden or light orange color, with a little chill haze and an off-white, creamy head. At 5.3%, the head retention on this is pretty decent. In the aromas I get some grapefruit, citrusy hops, and a little caramel from the malts. Huh. This smells promising. And then it hits my mouth, and I'm confused. Like a blonde from the Valley, like, radically confused (no offense to either blondes or valley girls. Come on, I thought I was one back in the 80's. Which is really funny, because according to Nathan, I was a toddler at the end of the decade). Almost halfway through the beer, I realize it tastes like oranges and maybe some pineapple up front, fading almost into pure carbonation, and finishing rather sweet with a whole lot of caramel and toffee and a little resinous pine at the tail end. It leaves a sticky feeling in the mouth when it's all said and done. And then I realized that this description sounds way better than it actually tastes. It's not bad, but it's also not that good. It's kind of a hot mess of an American Pale Ale.
Really, you should see my face right now. It's screwed up into this confused expression. But no, I'm not turning on the webcam to capture this. I'm not ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille. (Whew. Nathan has the exact same expression on his face as he tries it.)
What weirds me out even more is that, over halfway through the beer, the head is almost identical as when I poured it. That never happens, especially not in my Bell's glass (which reminds me, I need to add some baking soda to the dishwasher cycle tonight). And then I realize: this beer is as bipolar as my ex-boyfriend. Which is saying a lot, as he was in and out of mental institutions several times over our brief-but-not-brief-enough courtship.
Now that I have that beerpiphany out of the way... onto the next one. And a hug to the wonderful Nathan in the meantime.
2.75/5 caps
-Jennie
The smell is amazing, I would bathe in the aroma it has. The taste though..... um... What the fuck? Any frontal assault of flavor fades so fast, I can't get a good read on it. The middle is more bland than most U2 ballads. The back end hints of bitterness. I realize that this bores me so much that just spent damn near an hour zoning out and trying to find a song to compare with the bland middle.... Jennie commented that this reminds her of Genesee Cream Ale with added hops. This isn't bad for experiencing a pale ale for the first time, but there are better options out there (Doggie Style from Flying Dog).... Not absolutely appalling, just not what I was expecting from after the amazing aroma.... weird...
2.7/5 Caps
-Nathan
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