Belgian Pale
Capitol City Brewing Company

 

Chaney

3.7/5  rDev +12.5%
look: 4 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

I had this over at Cap. City while on a date night out with the wife.

A: Pours clear and amber; 1-finger thick off-white head that remains quite a while

S: Refreshing and crisp; fresh-cut grass with citrus (grapefruit) notes

T: Consisyent with smell; fresh crisp grassy notes with Some citrus notes .

M: A bit astringent and copper-ish

D: Definitely an easy session

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id: 1408517

I had this over at Cap. City while on a date night out with the wife.

A: Crystal clear amber color, with a finger or so worth of cloud, shaving cream-esque head that retained itself remarkably well throughout the session.

S: Disappointingly non-existent... lawn clippings with a tinge of citrus fruit mixed in.

T: A fair bit of grassiness with tons of pepper. There was a pleasant tempered sweetness here, with a mild hop and fruit character. A mild bitterness on the finish.

M: Bubbly carbonation with a mild grassy, bitterness. This was like a mini version of Flying Dog's "Raging Bitch."

D: Extremely smooth. Mildly better than solid.

On tap at the Cap City in Downtown DC.

Pouring a clear copper with a dense, off-white head with OK retention and no lacing, this looks decent. Still, this is too dark for a Belgian Pale. The nose is a blend of fruity yeast, citrus and a moderate spice character with some white pepper. A little sweetness is present, there's some caramel present. The flavors on the palate are similar, but differently proportioned. The spice character is high, more than I like, and there's a rather strong grainy astringency on the finish. Moderately yeasty, there's some fruitiness present. There's some caramel flavor, but it isn't terribly sweet, the grainy astringency takes care of that. medium-light in body with a moderate level of carbonation, this is decent on the palate. At $3.50 a pint at happy hour, I could have done better, but this gave me something to do for 20 minutes.

a: medium copper-amber colored, pretty dark for the style, average head and retention

s: mostly caramel with some lighter malts thinning things out, subtle yeast influence, papery hops, uninspired

m: very dull, carbonation weak - not in a delicate way, but in a flat way; body a lighter medium

t: caramel malt body thinned a bit with pale malt, moderate sweetness, a bit fruity, light yeast character, dull hop profile, uninteresting finish, nothing off but this one doesn't really impress at any point

d: pretty simplistic but reasonably drinkable, that said I would not order this again nor recommend it to others

standard pint at the brewpub

Cloudy and murky semi-dark orange colored body with a white head. Crisp and doughy, tastes full of american ale yeast, coarse and prickly, not the spicy and estery yeast of Belgians. Full of biscuit and dough flavors, even some strange feta-like scents and some old moldy oranges as well. Overall it's a pretty simple brew, even approaches bland after having a full pint. The faintness of the nose is probably the most damning thing.