Soproni APA
Heineken Hungária Sörgyárak / Sopron Brewery

Pours slightly hazy, tan in color with 1/2 inch head. Taste is light brown sugar, orange, lime, and pale malt. Sweet for style, light bodied, medium carbonation. Different and sweeter than most but still plenty of great pale malts. I like it. Could do several.

Must admit that I became very excited when I first heard about Soproni coming up with the idea of brewing an American Pale Ale.
Being one of the biggest commercial breweries in Hungary they are well known for producing the best quality beer among their competitors, and this just raised the expections even higher.
It was easy to sense though that Soproni was somehow making a bet, venturing into the craft game, pioneering in the business when they announced to issue this beer only on tap - as if they were about to test things out. And so it was, in my opinion.
This APA still feels like a test run to me: an unusually high ABV of 7.1% is way higher than the average american pale ale, the smell and taste lacks the intensive flavor of dry hopping, instead it rather resembles of a subtle but somewhat thick bodied strong ale. Although not bad at all, the overall impression was a letdown, having expected an american pale ale with such american characteristics. Nomen est omen.
Following almost a year's hiatus, when one would have just thought that Soproni had given up venturing into craft brewing for good, they came up with their first IPA that really lives up to its name. Lesson learned - but this is already another story...