Lighter Shade Of Pale Ale
Cellar Brewing Company

 

 

A: Color is on the darker side of most pale ales

S: Not much going on but this could be because I have no idea when this was bottled, decent malt aroma

T: Not a ton going on with the taste, it has a decent maltiness to it but not much else

M: Very thin for the style

O: Not bad... but not great

I picked up a bottle of Cellar Brewing Company's Lighter Shade Of Pale last week for $1.89 at The Lager Mill. I've never had any beers from Cellar Brewing Company and I thought I would start off with their Pale Ale, so lets see how it goes. No visible bottling date, but it just showed up. Poured from a brown 12oz bottle into a imperial pint glass.

A- The label looks nice, it's got what I think is a barn owl on it and I think it's fairly eye catching. It poured a hazy golden orange color that took on more of a darker orange and amber color when held to the light with a finger and a half worth of off white head that died down to a thin ring that stayed till the end and it left some patchy rings of lacing behind. This was a pretty nice looking beer, but I think I was expecting a lighter looking Pale Ale because of the name.

S- The aroma starts off with a higher amount of medium sweetness followed by the hops being the first to show up and they impart a nice fruity aroma with some citrus, citrus rind, berry and other fruity aromas coming through with a slight herbal hop aroma in the background. Up next comes the malts that show up nicely and they impart a nice toasted malt, grainy, cracker and biscuit like aromas with some sweet malts and a light amount of doughy yeast showing up in the background. Towards the end there was a light creamy aroma. This beer had a very nice aroma, I really like the hop profile and the balance between the malts and the hops.

T- The taste seems to be fairly similar to the aroma and it starts off with a higher amount of medium sweetness followed by the hops still being the first to show up and they impart the same fruity and berry like hop aspect that I got in the aroma, but this time it's a little lighter and it had still has that light herbal hop aspect to it in the background. Up next comes the malts which show up the same amount that they did in the aroma and they impart the same malty flavors with the toasted and biscuit like malts seeming to stick out the most with those sweet malts and doughy yeast showing up in the background. On the finish there's a slightly higher amount of light bitterness with a fruity hop, berry, creamy and toasted malt like aftertaste. This was a nice tasting beer, but it wasn't as true to style as I would like.

M- Smooth, well balanced, pretty creamy, lightly crisp, on the lighter side of being medium bodied with a lighter amount of medium carbonation. This beer had a nice mouthfeel, but it wasn't the truest to style.

Overall I thought this was a nice beer, but I didn't think it was the best example of a American Pale Ale since it didn't seem to be that true to style, I enjoyed the beer, but some of the aspects of it didn't seem to line up with the style and it left a me a little confused. This beer had nice drinkability, it was smooth, clean, pretty creamy, a little crisp, not too filling and the taste did a decent job at holding my attention, I think I could drink a couple of these, but after that I would be ready to move on to something else. What I liked the most about this beer was the balance and the fruit aspect of the hop profile, to me those were the highlights of this beer. What I liked the least about this beer was that it wasn't that true to style, while the toasted malts, creamy mouthfeel and pretty low bitterness wasn't bad, it wasn't something that I look for in the style. I might buy this beer again, but I don't feel the need to go right back to the store and stock up on it. I think it's worth giving a try as long as you don't go in expecting a very true to style American Pale Ale. All i all i liked this beer, but just not as a American Pale ale, I don't know what I would classify it as, but if someone told me this was a hoppy Red/ Amber Ale i'm pretty sure I would believe them. It's enjoyable but it doesn't really have what I look for in a great American Pale Ale. This made for a decent first impression for this brewery and I'm interested in checking out more of their beers. I appreciate the effort, but this one needs some work if they intend to keeping marketing it as a Pale Ale, i think they should just change the name, but that's just my 2 cents.