Gold Ale
Southern Oregon Brewing Company

 

 

Gently glittering gold with lemon juice colored edges. The tight-bubbled crown maxed out at two fingers and is an attractive shade of piano key ivory. Delicate lace does a pretty good job in the glass coverage department.

The nose is simple and relatively clean. It features untoasted cereal grains and a modest amount of earthy hoppiness. The brewery thinks the beer has a 'subtle citrus note'. I beg to differ. Maybe it will appear on the palate.

First of all, why use the word Ale in the name if lager yeast is used? Gold Ale smells more like an all-malt lager than an American blonde ale... and it tastes somewhere in between. Not clean enough to be the former and not estery enough to be the latter.

There's an acceptable amount of malt for the style (either one) and the hops do an okay job on the other side of the sweet-bitter seesaw. The lineup includes Challenger, Crystal, Sterling, Perle and Strisselspalt. Flavors mirrors aromas for the most part, and don't really impress. Still no citrus.

All things considered, the mouthfeel makes a decent showing. It isn't as thin as some beer of this style and it's appropriately bubbled.

In the craft beer land of plenty that is the Pacific Northwest, I find it hard to believe that Southern Oregon Brewing Company turns many heads. Their motto might as well be 'Basic Beer Done Reasonably Well'.

Clear gold with more than one inch of white head. Good amount of lacings. Aroma is light floral hops. Taste is sweet malts with a light citrus hop flavor. Slight lemon dry finish. Makes me want some more. Very bold flavor for a Pale Lager. Very sessionable beer at 4.5% abv. This is my second beer from this brewer. Both have been interesting beers.

In my initial tasting notes I scribbled, "Change the yeast to something cleaner and you'd get a better ale." Turns out I was right. Southern Oregon brews all their beers with a lager yeast at ale temperatures. This novel approach yields conflicted results where neither the cleanness of a lager nor the full-bodied fruitiness of an ale effectively blossom.

In this case, cluttered, tangy yeasts trespass upon the malt base. The beer is radiant gold with no head or lace and tastes of herbal hop flavor and bittering beneath a hodgepodge of yeast esters. The bittering is suggestive of oregano.

Despite filtered clarity, SOB's Gold is not suited as a crossover beer due to an excess of yeasted tang. Neither a steam beer nor a successful hybrid.