Portland Ale
Portland Brewing Company

Portland AlePortland Ale
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From:
Portland Brewing Company
 
Oregon, United States
Style:
American Pale Ale
ABV:
Not listed
Score:
75
Avg:
3.1 | pDev: 17.1%
Reviews:
28
Ratings:
32
Status:
Retired
Rated:
Nov 26, 2021
Added:
Mar 02, 2003
Wants:
  0
Gots:
  0
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
 
Rated: 3.09 by LesDewitt4beer from Minnesota

Nov 26, 2021
Photo of rodbeermunch
Reviewed by rodbeermunch from Nevada

3.05/5  rDev -1.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
Yellow pour with substantial clarity and over an inch of tiny bubbled white head. Very minimal barley and hop contributions.

Light bodied, pale malts, cascade hops, toastiness. High levels of carbonation. This is just one of those easy going pale ales that doesn't bring much in terms of malt heft, hoppiness or bitterness.
Feb 18, 2016
 
Rated: 3 by Hellpop65 from Kansas

Dec 15, 2014
 
Rated: 3.25 by buzzy from Pennsylvania

Mar 14, 2014
 
Rated: 2.5 by cdwil from Texas

Dec 27, 2011
Photo of Beerandraiderfan
Reviewed by Beerandraiderfan from Nevada

3.03/5  rDev -2.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
Yellow pour, lots of clarity, white head, 1". Mild hop oil aroma, 2 row.

Taste, pedestrian, but not bad, solid hot weather beer, but the price for these seems high and does not need to be since there wouldn't be much in the way of ingredients for this one. Mild toastiness for the grain, lively carbonation makes the beer feel even lighter, slight bitter twang on the backend.
Aug 24, 2011
Photo of mynie
Reviewed by mynie from Maryland

2.88/5  rDev -7.1%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 4
Pours a pils gold, very light for an APA, with a decent head.

Smells like fruit--maybe a little bit old--along with very light hops. No real balance, no real hop presence.

Tastes a lot like it smells. Esters of fruit suggesting age, very weak dry hops, and then a watery finish.

Nothing going on here worth mentioning, let alone worth trying.
Dec 08, 2006
Photo of walleye
Reviewed by walleye from Michigan

2.03/5  rDev -34.5%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 2
from the bottle. poured a yellow to golden with a white head that left some lacing. aroma, hops, grainy, musty, grass and not much else going on. flavor, weak hops, got some skunkyness, with a touch of citrus. will not get this one again, glad I only paid 1.25 for this
Mar 03, 2006
Photo of beveragecaptain
Reviewed by beveragecaptain from New Jersey

2.53/5  rDev -18.4%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
12 ounce bottle. Portland ale pours out a clear, yellow color with a small, fizzy head. The aroma is pretty foul: corn, stale wheat, a little bit of malt sweetness. The flavor follows from the smell, though it's not quite as bad. Thankfully, the flavor is pretty light. I feared that it would have the cloying husk flavor found in so many bad pale ales. Light mouthfeel. Decent drinkability, I suppose. It's easy to drink, but I wouldn't really want to. Not terrible, but almost.
Dec 01, 2005
Photo of Gagnonsux
Reviewed by Gagnonsux from Texas

3.45/5  rDev +11.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5
The color is a pale shade of copper with a very high level of carbonation which creates a rather large head. The smell has a surprisingly fruity ale aroma with a rather mild citrus hop element. Everything about Portland Ale's flavor hang around the "just decent" level. The malt and hop flavors are okay, but need to be beefed up, other than the bitterness this beer seems a little watered down. This isn't bad at all, but there are too many better APAs available for there to be a reason for me to pick this up again.
Oct 22, 2005
Photo of beermanbrian
Reviewed by beermanbrian from Pennsylvania

2.95/5  rDev -4.8%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3
Pale yellow beer with thin white head that dissipates quickly. Moderate stream of carbonation bubbles. Smell is pale malt with just a hint of hops. Taste is light malt but not very strong. Very watery and not much to recomend it. Mouthfeeel is thin and watery. You could easily drink lots of this on a hot day mowing the lawn and I would recomend over bmc. If your looking for something with some character and depth to the taste this is not your beer.
Oct 20, 2005
Photo of karst
Reviewed by karst from Missouri

3.2/5  rDev +3.2%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
Pours a watery clear copper with a 1 fingered head that had a 20 second life span.
Slight biscuit and faint hop aroma. Light body and thinish mouth feel in spite of the sweet malt flavors. The one thing that is right about this Ale is its hop bitterness, which salvages the taste. But hop flavors are still too weak to identify. Origional founder's recipe seems lacking for the APA style I expect. This APA is just drinkable but not especially desirable IMHO. I am sticking to their MacTarnahan's Black Watch Cream Porter.
Sep 20, 2005
Photo of kbub6f
Reviewed by kbub6f from New York

3.93/5  rDev +26.8%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4.5
A small, off-white head dies filmy over a clear, gold beer. Just a hint of amber. Hills of lacing. The nose is fruity, with some pine and flowers. Very fruity in the front. Hoppy. The middle is fullish, with foamy, sweet caramel. The finish is nutty, fruity, peppery, metallic and crackersy. It's nice. Fresh, light, nutty, sweet.
Jun 27, 2005
Photo of allengarvin
Reviewed by allengarvin from Texas

3.66/5  rDev +18.1%
look: 2 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3 | overall: 4
Crystal clear apple-juice-amber color with not even the slightest hint of foam atop it. Looks like apple juice, in fact. Nose is a bit nicer, though, with a pleasant floral hop aroma and some malt. Taste has some nice biscuit-like maltness, a tad sweet, balanced well by medium bitterness and flowery hop flavor. Lightly fruity, vaguely apple-like. Finishes clean. A little undercarbonated with a light body. Not a bad beer, but not a very interesting beer either.
Jun 01, 2005
Photo of Pegasus
Reviewed by Pegasus from Texas

3.5/5  rDev +12.9%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
Appearance: Hazy medium golden color with a moderate white head, this soon fades to a collar and a paper-thin layer of foam. The carbonation is slight.

Aroma: Sweet malt and honey note, very little hop presence.

Taste: Opens with a light caramel note, midway through the taste this turns to a herbal/medicinal bitterness, which lingers on well past the dry finish.

Mouth feel: Fairly full bodied, with some slight carbonation at the tip of the tongue.

Drinkability/notes: A pleasant and nondescript beer, of good quality, but lacking in any notable distinction. Very decent as a hot weather beer, or as a gateway beer for macro drinkers.

Presentation: Packaged in a twelve ounce brown glass longneck with a pop off crown. Served in a standard pint tap glass.

Thanks to HardTarget for this bottle.
May 21, 2005
Photo of woemad
Reviewed by woemad from Washington

2.53/5  rDev -18.4%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5
Bottle purchased at Huckleberry's in Spokane for $1.19

Poured very pale clear gold color, with a big fizzy white head that dropped very quickly. Very minor amount of lace.

Despite beiing called Portland ALE and coming in a brown bottle, this smells like a skunked lager, but with some floral hops in the background. I had to wonder if it really was an ale at all.

Not as skunked as the smell when tasted, but there ain't much else to reccomend it. If you enjoy the sensation of very mildly sweet maltiness and a slight taste of hops to your beer (in other words if you are weaning yourself from an exclusively macro beer diet), this is for you. Otherwise, pass.

Thin and watery in the mouthfeel dept.

This is moderately more drinkable than some of the better macro options out there. That's pretty much the best you can say about it. Regardless of it's storied past, today the city of Portland should have an ale with more character named after it.
May 17, 2005
Photo of HardTarget
Reviewed by HardTarget from Texas

3.08/5  rDev -0.6%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 4
Bottle Inspection: Uninformative label, no date, abv% nothing.

Aroma: Very light floral hop on a mild malt base. A slight off smell as well, somewhat papery.

Appearance: Bright yellow glass with active carbonation streams feeding a centimeter head of small bubbled off white. Very clear

Flavor: Wow that’s mild. Bland, plain, ordinary, average, you get the idea. Ok, it has taste, it just took me about a quarter of the glass to find it. Malt lends a slight sweetness to a mildly fruity citric floral hop. I get hints of orange and lemon. As it comes to room temp a weak tea flavor come out.

Mouthfeel: Light medium body, a touch heavy in carbonation but not bad, and a slight numbing/puckering feeling in the finish. It has a fairly soft feel.

Overall Impression: This beer was brewed in Neutropolis on the Homeworld of the Neutrals. While this makes for MASSIVE drinkability, it does nothing for my beer itch. No really flaws noted in the taste, there’s nothing wrong here, and for a pale ale, it’s well within style. I just had very little impact. Serve it to the macro crowd.
May 10, 2005
Photo of RedDiamond
Reviewed by RedDiamond from Oregon

2.97/5  rDev -4.2%
look: 2.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
Another beer expressing MacTarnahan’s penchant for intense clarity. Portland Ale is light gold, though several shades darker than their honey beer. It is headless, laceless, and proffers a dilute, watery aroma. Its taste is simple and drinkable though not especially noteworthy. I would describe it as clean and refreshing but also rudimentary and routine. Think: lawnmower.

I imagine that, at its genesis, this recipe was a radical departure from the commercially produced beers commonly available in the mid-1980’s. Today, it embodies my definition of average. I am however, somewhat nostalgic for its original marketing slogan: “When you’re out of Portland Ale, you’re out of Portland.”
Mar 27, 2005
Photo of beerluvr
Reviewed by beerluvr from Canada (ON)

3.75/5  rDev +21%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4
Pours with a pure white head over very slightly hazy light amber liquid tinged with gold. Nice malty nose with underlying subtle fruitiness, very nice. The taste is sweet and predominately malty with a cookie-like note as well. Not a whole hell of a lot of hop presence to speak of. Finishes lightly honeyed with a clean aftertaste. Nice but a bit too restrained.
Jan 14, 2005
Photo of Mitchster
Reviewed by Mitchster from Michigan

3.85/5  rDev +24.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Pours out to a slightly hazy copper goldenw ith orange highlights, forming a modest white rocky white head with average to poor retention and sparse lacing. Aroma is delicately fruity with floral hops, a very subtle hint of diacetyl and corn, a touch of dying grass and light apricots. Carbonation is moderate. Mouthfeel is pleasantly spritzy with a medium-light body and very snappy finish. Taste is a recapitulation of the aroma, however the bitterness is more herbaceous and moderate in intensity. The bitterness is augmented by very hard water. There is a slight wave of peppery alcohol towards the very dry finish. Otherwise, cleanly fermented.

Nothing surprising here. I like the crisp mouthfeel and dry finish and this would make an excellent summer beer to be consumed in mass quantities, but it's quite average as far as pale ales go.
Oct 21, 2004
Portland Ale from Portland Brewing Company
Beer rating: 75 out of 100 with 32 ratings