Sunset Summer Ale
Hopworks Brewery

The waitress suggested this was a British-style ale, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it's bittered with noble hops. Both the fragrance and taste have an herbal spice suggesting a pilsner lineage, while the light air of biscuit dough does imply an English ale.

Hopworks makes frequent use of an organic pilsner malt as its base malt and it's possible that I'm picking up on that aspect of this ale. But regardless of style, Sunset earns high marks for its clean contours with strong herbal-spice bittering. The aftertaste shows an appropriately edgy attitude though there's a slight touch of pencil shaving in the finish.

If I'm not mistaken, Hopworks emerged from the renovation of an oil company called Sunset, and I suspect that would be the origin of this summer seasonal's name. It certainly isn't named as a reference to sunset colors. The beer is clear brassy yellow with low carbonation and ample suds.