Grandma's Homemade Ale
Bear Republic Brewing Co.

 

On tap at the brewpub today.

The beer pours a golden amber color with good head retention and lacing. The nose is quite attractice, showing wet leafy tobacco, dry citrus, mango and pineapple and a hint of pine. The flavor profile replicates the nose in this excellent beer, and I appreciate how dry and bitter it is. There's a core of sweet malt running through this beer, but it's more than offset by the considerable hoppy bitterness in this beer. Mouthfeel is light to medium bodied, with a long bitter finish. The alcohol is very well integrated into the flavor profile, and drinkability is very good.

Really enjoyed this one, though I'm not sure how much this has in common with the original version. This beer drinks more like an IPA/DIPA, and the beer menu listed an abv. to match (in the 7% range). Regardless, this is a delicious, well crafted beer from BR.

O'Briens Wet Hop Fest. Pours clear auburn with a minimal white head. Sweet aroma of grapefruit, mango, and pineapple. Taste was very nice. Biscuity malt with huge wet hops. Heavily citrus with a strong amount of herbs and pine oil. In terms of APA's, this is on the upper end.

10 ounce glass at O'Briens Pub in San Diego on 10/25/08 for three dollars, reviewed from notes, third beer I tasted at this year's Wet Hop Festival

A-Medium orange color with some golden highlights, small 1/4 inch bubbly white head that went away immediately, no retention, some lacing
S-Floral hoppiness, citrus and fruits with grapefruit, oranges, mangoes, nectarines, pineapple, sweet malts, toasted bread, and pine needles, very hoppy nose
T-Starts off with piney hops, chewy bread and biscuit malts in the middle, more hops in the finish but with more of a citrus blend, taste becomes tangy because of the herbal spice notes later on and the citrusy fruits, hoppiness holds it own though and remains fairly dry even once it warms, nicely balanced and quite different which is usually a good thing
M-Sweet, dry, and slightly chewy mouthfeel, medium bodied, carbonation is pretty strong in this one, taste lingers a moderate amount of time
D-Could drink a few more glasses, light on the stomach and very low in alcohol, only complaint is that it could get overly sweet at times, definitely sessionable though

Bear Republic is a fantastic brewery and this fresh hop beer was quite interesting, these Centennial and Cascade hops are homegrown from employee Tami's grandmother, this was supposedly the first time this brew has been made in a few years, hope this becomes more of a regular thing, woould drink again, recommended

This brew arrived at my table essentially headless. Lacing was very sparse. The negatives end right there. Very hoppy fresh aroma and taste was smooth and hoppy in the northwest tradition. (cascade, centennial) A very refreshing pale ale that went down more like a mild ale. If it was darker I would have considered it a mild. Worth having.