Fresh Hop Pale Ale
Great Divide Brewing Company

 

Pours a dull gold to light amber color that looks like a hazy ipa, big 2/3" head and good retention. Liquid ugly, foam, impressive. The aroma is of old school C bittering hops, rind and pine, rind and pine all day.

Taste doesn't really offer much in terms of flavor. The mouth feel is plenty of bitterness. Lacks that green feel to it, if you really search you can tell yourself there is some grassiness, but that isn't always 'green' it can be more of a dead, yellow, saison kind of grassiness too. The bitterness pushes harder and drier than most C hops, so they may have scored some Simcoe for this one. No off flavors, but in this day and age, I don't know that a beer lacking much if anything in the way of tropical or citrus fruit flavors can cut it for much of the current audience. But hey, I love a mix of old and new, but this just didn't resonate for me in much of any direction.

Another beer first had at the Sierra Nevada Single, Fresh, Wet & Wild Festival in Chico, CA.

 

 

 

 

Canned 10/12/16; drank 10/23/16 @ the Yarchives.

See-through dark orange appearance.

A violent pour yielded a HUGE white head (careful pouring!); a thick curtain of lace.

Cane sugar, mild honey & faint mango notes in the nose.

Medium thin mouthfeel.

Cane sugar & faint mango flavors up front; faint bitterness on the finish.

This was pleasant; however, it was extremely mild & fairly forgettable. Not one I'll seek out again.

 

 

 

 

The clear dark golden colored beer pours out into a Duvel glass with a 3/4” fluffy white head that slowly recedes to a thin cap the then becomes an irregular island on the surface of the liquid while leaving lots of foam and lacing on the sides of the glass. Sipping creates some scattered patches and legs of lacing.

The aromas are light flowery, grassy and grapefruit against a background of some caramel malt.

The flavors have a clean and fresh flowery, grassy character that goes well with the bitterness from the grapefruit zest. The malt backbone and its bit of sweetness are noticeable but stay in the background.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied and slightly prickly from the light persistent finely bubbled carbonation. The long finish begins as the malt and its sweetness recede even further into the background as the bitterness from the grapefruit zest moves toward the back of the palate and then slowly fades to a dry persistent bitterness at the end.

Overall a beer worth trying and one I’d be willing to have again if offered, but that said I’ll not be going out of my way to do a repeat.

Poured into a Great Divide cervoise glass.

Look: Dirty sunburnt golden straw colored body under a rocky, light khaki sea foam head that takes a long time to recede (still waiting) that leaves the entire glass covered in bubbly foam.

Aroma: Sweet malts and fresh pine combine to form a sort of fresh evergreen aroma that’s unique.

Taste: Just the right amount of malt balance before turning both lightly grassy and very piny without a lot of bitterness. Clean wood and pine in the finish.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied.

Overall: Very fresh and clean tasting, not overly resinous or bitter, with proper dryness.

 

I remember liking it, but not as much as the other fresh hope beers available at the time.