Gila Pale Ale
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery

 

Reviewed from notes.

Pours a moderate copper color with a white head and a decent amount of lacing. The nose brings orange and other citrus as well as a touch of pine. The taste is slight caramel malt with a bit of citrus bitterness. Mouthfeel is a bit light with good carbonation and bitterness levels. A nice effort.

Serving Type Sampled: On Draught at Rock Bottom Brewery. Westminster, Colorado

Appearance: Amber in color, Hazy. Great white head that laces nicely and lasts throughout

Smell: Massive citrus hops, grapefruit in particular. Maybe some acid malt.

Taste: This mildly sweet beer is well balanced with a nice punch of Amarillo hops. The subdued bitterness offsets the caramel malt nicely and leaves a great citrus aftertaste.

Mouthfeel: Light to medium in body, Medium carbonation.

Drinkability: Great. After having the sampler I deemed this as my favorite Rock Bottom Beer. Very refreshing and at 6% how can you go wrong!

On tap at the Westminister, Colorado Restaurant.

Not very pale for a Pale Ale -- more burnt orange -- but sporting a big pretty, pure white head. Smell of hops and a bit of citrus background. Taste is just too hoppy for me. Very dry. Where's the malt? It's gotte be in there somewhere.

Mouthfeel has a decent roundness to it. Drinkable, if you like American Pale Ales, which I find too hoppy. Another of Rock Bottom's pretty just-above-average beers.

This orangish pale ale poured a nice foamy head that disapated quickly. This brew has a heavy citrus character in both smell and taste. Not a very complex taste as the caramelly toned malts blend smoothly with a light hopped citrusy finish. There is a almost creamy mouthfeel to this brew, semi heavy for a pale ale. I have tried all the Rock Bottom brews but I keep coming back to this Rock Bottom offering.

Seems a bit darker than most pale ales, a burnt orange color. A thick and sticky white head sits on top. Citrusy and slightly piney aroma with a bit of caramel malt. On the palate, caramel and grain malt are the biggest presence. Hops take a back seat, surprisingly and unfortunately. What's there is mostly citrusy with minimal rind-like character. It's definitely an American style pale ale, but it seems like it's a very toned down version of the west coast "style". Very smooth mouthfeel. Medium-bodied, definitely aimed at pleasing the palates of mass audiences, but still not a bad beer.

Offered off a nitro-tap, Gila Pale Ale had a magnificent cascade effect that took well over three minutes to wind down to the point where the beer could be tasted. Once settled, the beer had a translucent orange color and a fluffy white head.
The smell was mainly of floral hops and hints of malt. There was more pine scent to this than with what came from the regular tapped offering. The taste was a more expansive than the on-tap version. The pale malts seemed a bit sweeter and the hops rush was more diverse as a spruce flavor was more pronounced and gave a nice complement to the grapefruit flavor. The feel was medium-bodied, creamy, and smooth.
Overall, I liked the Gila Pale Ale off the nitro-tap. The feel was good and the flavors more pronounced then simply getting it on-tap. Worth trying out.

Pours a pleasant translucent amber color with a rather diminutive head and scanty lace. Pertinent malt nose, with light floral tones, the start sweet, top is lightweight. Finish is astringent from the over carbonation, but what saved this from being a total loss was a nice pleasing to the palate hop spicy bite, long lasting dry aftertaste. If the beer had any body, I would have given it a better rating, but as with most of the Rock Bottom beers I’ve sampled, they lean towards the light beer drinker’s palates and I don’t blame them for that.