Super Pale Ale (Dry Hopped)
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery

[This beer's proper name is A.K. Pale Mild Ale, not Super Pale Ale. The bartender had no idea what the 'A.K.' stands for. I'll won't recount the details of how I figured it out, but it looks as if I was given this cask beer several weeks ago when I asked for the (also cask) Super Pale Ale. The scores are the same and I've decided not to change the review itself. My sincere apologies to the brewer for disparaging his Super Pale Ale.]

Murky dark mustard until it recovered from the violent journey from cask to glass. The beer was then lightly fuzzy lemon-amber with a cream colored cap. Head retention was nothing special, although at no point could I see beer from a bird's eye view. Each mouthful left an undulating, blurry ring of lace in its wake. By the final ounce there were at least a half dozen such rings in a tidy stack.

The nose was weak and wasn't nearly as hoppy as I would have liked. SPA smelled lemon citrusy and exceptionally clean. I expected a little more oomph with warming, but it never really materialized.

Like the nose, the flavor was good but subdued. The higher score is a result of its greater intensity, relatively speaking. I would think that any beer with 'super' and 'hopped' in the name would be more than slightly hoppy, but this one wasn't. Although it became more flavorful with warming, I still wanted more.

The beer was modestly malted with very little flavor contribution from the barley. A little fresh grain managed to peek through on the finish. Still though, the lemony, grapefruity, orangy (in that order), lightly sweet, barely bitter, super clean hops were the centerpiece and managed to hold my attention despite my disappointment at their lack of forcefulness.

The finish was brief thanks to the clean, completely unresiny nature of the ale, and the mouthfeel was as light as the meringue on a lemon pie. Too light as it turns out. Given the likely target (lightly hoppy, lightly flavored, easy drinking summer beer), it was probably just as intended. The near perfect cask-conditioned carbonation helped somewhat.

My hophead bias aside, Super Pale Ale is a beer that begs, pleads and cries out (yes, I listen to my beer as well as look at, smell and taste it) for a more assertive hoppiness. The way I see it, hops are what make beer such as this good. Therefore, more of a good thing is an even better thing, right?