Double Pale Ale
Uncommon Brewers

 

 

650ml bottle - so, a California-based brewery is having its product made at a huge contract operation across the border in Canada. Quick, nobody tell the Trumpsters! And yeah, I like beer too.

This beer pours a mostly clear, medium copper amber colour, with three fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and mildly bubbly ecru head, which leaves some wafting campfire smoke pattern lace around the glass as it quickly dissipates.

It smells of gritty and grainy caramel malt, some buttery crackers, muddled domestic citrus rind, a further indistinct tropical fruitiness, and some plain earthy, musty, and gently lit-up floral hop bitters. The taste is bready and grainy cereal malt, mixed berry fruity notes, a hint of estery yeastiness, some damp minerality, and more understated leafy, herbal, and perfumed floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate-satiating frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and sort of smooth, as a touch of booze acridity mars the surface sheen at this particular point in the process. It finishes off-dry, the malt, mixed frooty essences, and burgeoning alcohol jostling for lingering dominance.

Overall - yeah, I don't really get it when breweries try stuff like this. It's essentially a DIPA, for crying out loud, but a thin and uninspiring one, truth be told. Despite previous mentions, the elevated ABV is actually fairly well integrated, so I suppose it's got that going for it.