Pale Ale (Cascade Stella Tomahawk)
The Kernel Brewery

Purchased at the Kernel Brewery in London recently, bottle-conditioned in a 500ml brown bottle; bottled on 10/10/2013, BB 10/02/2014, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass.

A: pours a murky dark amber hue, coming with a well-lasting, thin layer of off-white froth on top of a rather moderate level of carbonation.
S: on the nose, the citric, flowery and lychee-ish hops assume the dominance over a lightly sweet caramel malt and mildly “stinky” pale malt bedrock. A little piney and yeasty notes also come through, not in a bold way.
T: quite effervescent on the swallow, the flavour is initially citric-tangy hoppy against a faintly sweet and “muddy” malt backbone laced with very light earthy undertones, quickly ensued by a nicely chewy and lychee-shell-like aromatic bitterness which comes semi-spicy & tannic at the same time, going pleasantly yeasty towards the well-attenuated, dry-ish finish.
M&O: quite effervescent in fact, this medium-bodied and hoppy-bitter ale is an extremely easy-drinking one, but all in all does not strike as much different from many a hop experiments on The Kernel’s product line.