Southern Frontier
To Øl

A 330ml bottle with a best before date of 8th January 2016 and poured into a pint glass.

Appearance: It poured a slightly hazy amber copper colour with a two finger slightly off white coloured head that slowly dissipated into a thin foamy layer with stringy lacing.

Aroma: Starts with citrus orange and grapefruit followed by a light hit of tropical pineapple and finishes with a somewhat caramelly note.

Taste: Strong caramel malts at the beginning but finishes bitter. The aftertaste bitterness lasts long and is largely citrus grapefruit with hints of pine and lychee.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with medium carbonation.

Overall: This was quite nice but personally due to the strong hop bitterness, it feels more like an IPA than an APA. Having said that, Southern Frontier is still nice to drink and goes down easy.

 

Tasting notes: Sweet corn backbone and a reasonably assertive aromatic hop tang. A distinctive apple-lime note. Light grapefruit. Very bitter at the back end but smooth. Nice Columbus spice. Almost nutty at times. Bright fruit and sweet grains. Moderate to high carbonation and body on the light end of medium. The spice builds over time. Tasty pale ale (hops veer into IPA-land) and does not taste exactly like the rest.

A 330ml bottle with a BB of May 2015. Acquired a while back from the Brewdog webshop. Not quite sure what the brewers were going for, but the label describes it as an American South state pale ale stuffed with hops and maize. Hopped with Simcoe, Centennial and Columbus.

A: Poured into a cervoise. Bottle conditioned. A deep, hazy marmalade-amber hue with tons of chunky floating sediment and low carbonation. Yields a large head of creamy off-white foam that lasts for a few minutes before subsiding to a patchy surface layer. Good lacing.

S: Aroma of fruity hops with hints of citrus, peel, mild pine, subtle weed, caramel malt, faint toasted grain, a touch of maize, earthy yeast and stewed hops. Pretty good.

T: Tastes of fruity aromatic hops and caramel malt with a spicy bitter finish. Notes of grapefruit, peel, citrus, mild pine resin, subtle weed, a hint of white grape, caramel malt, vague toasted grain, faint maize, earthy yeast and stewed hops. A twinge of cardboard in the background. Slightly sweet, followed by a strident, hop-driven bitterness upon swallowing.

M: Mouthfeel is smooth, tingly and dry, with low carbonation and great body. Hop oils tantalise the palate. A bit too flat; could certainly be livelier. Somewhat astringent, accompanied by an aftertaste of bitter aromatic hops, caramel malt/maize, earthy yeast and faint cardboard.

O: A solid hoppy ale with a well-rounded character. Looks OK, while the aroma and flavour are seriously hop-laden and fruity, underpinned by caramel malt, faint maize and earthy yeast. Nice thick body; shame about the lack of carbonation. Suffering a little from hop fade but still impressively balanced. Goes down a treat - worth sampling if you have the chance.

 

 

 

 

 

330ml bottle. The label's talk of 'south' is a little disorienting - are we talking southern (i.e. antipodean) hops, or a general idea of collaboration between north and south (Swedes and Danes)? Probably any and all.

This beer pours a mildly hazy, medium copper amber hue, with a teeming tower of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly ecru head, which leaves some pleasant layered stringy Styrofoam lace around the glass as it slowly sinks away.

It smells of fleshy orange and grapefruit citrus, splendiferous tropical fruit (pineapple, guava, and lychee), semi-sweet bready caramel malt, a bit of stony minerality, and further floral, leafy hops. The taste is bitter orange rind, wet pine forest floor, gritty pale malt, biscuity caramel, chalk, more sub-tropical fruitiness - pineapple cores, kiwi, and musty lychee - hard water, and a sort of evidently separate leafy, herbal, and floral hop bitterness.

The carbonation is average in its supportive duties, relying on a tight frothiness to get by, the body an agreeable enough medium weight, and plainly smooth, a few nicks and tears from the hops to be expected. It finishes off-dry, and still a barely controlled maelstrom of hop bitterness, fruit, and stoic malt.

Yet another pale ale hopped to the nuts (quite attractively, I might add), upped a full tick in ABV, and somehow it's not an IPA? Ok, that off my chest, let's dish about how good this little fucker really is - complex hops (uber-balanced between the bitter and the sweet), interesting malt for a pale ale - that chalky character reminds me of the Maine Brewing Co's calling card, and not a sniff of the extra booze. Sell this in sixers at a much discounted per-bottle price, and I know what I'd be bringing to the next backyard BBQ.

 

 

Pours a hazed orange amber hue with a three finger creamy dimple laden head and similar lacing everywhere,wow the nose is smack full of pineapple,paw paw,boiled candy and piney resinous hops,the mouthfeel is medium bodied with slight carbonation and has tastes of pineapple,lychees,lollies and finished with a pine bitterness and overall quite a tasty APA that has a killa nose and well worth a visit cheers.