Mother of Invention
Backlash Beer Company

Haven't seen much from Backlash lately so was surprised to see cans of this Pale Ale at CBC-Westford this past week. Nothing unusual noted while consuming a can. It's really a very basic Pale Ale - definitely refreshing with plenty of body and hop flavor for a 5% ABV offering. Don't know if this is a seasonal but I think it fits well into any season. Hope Backlash prospers at its new brewery.

 

Pine, passion fruit, melon and grapefruit zest. Cracker malt. Very dry. Light bodied. Nice little pale ale. For 5% it packs some pretty good flavor. Hopefully they make this again. It's a decent session ale.

Dated 4/23/18 on the bottom of the can, 3.5 weeks old.

Pours a hazy deep orange in the glass with a finger of light tan head. Beautiful bouquet of fruity notes on first nose. Big honeydew melon followed by blueberry, papaya, ruby grapefruit, lychee, dankness, gooseberry and a spicy bready malt. On taste I'm getting a meld between the berry/melon and dank/pine, but losing the complexity of the nose. Medium-light body with medium dryness and bitterness. Quite a bit more dry that I was expecting, awesome! This 5% Pale is packing a pretty big punch for it's weight class. If you're looking for a low ABV pale with a big aroma that wont bog you down, this is your brew.

So I guess this is one of two new beers brewed at the new Backlash brewery, which I believe is their actual first time brewing beer in their own location. From what I remember of their past, they've kinda been shopping their beers around to different local joints for contract brewing, and they've hit a lot of snags along the way while trying to get their own place. This, then, is a fittingly named brew for a new beginning... I can raise a pint to that!

Well, this is a pretty beautiful specimen in my glass. A hazy and pretty orange colored beer with several fingers of head that sink down to about a finger-and-a-half with stagnant lace and excellent legs. The surface is really cloudy as well, with micro-bubbles crowding around the entirety of the top of my glass.

Nose here is pretty well-rounded with a mix of notes ranging from citrus to light melon/cantaloupe sweetness/brightness to slight dank and grassy elements. The hop combination of Citra, Huell Melon and Mosaic is pretty uniquely-utilized here, in that it sort of marries new-school citrusy fruitiness with a more strawberry/melon-forward aspect that reminds me of the Belma hop utilized in Hidden Cove's Compadre APA. This has a slightly-more straightforward overall scent to it, mostly balancing tangerine and grapefruit pith with honeydew melon in an unusual and satisfying way.

I taste a lot of pine and grassy flavors here, especially upfront, with a bitter and aspirin-like swallow that nevertheless details some melon and raspberry flavors from the hop combination along the way. Strong grapefruit rind bitterness; like sucking on a white grapefruit peel with some slight pine-like bitterness here and there. Almost Cascade-like mid-finish note of generic citrus/pine; reminds me of the classic SNPA at times, but with a slight new-school bent with the green dank notes taking over in the early portion of each small sip.

The mouthfeel here is rather chewy for a beer clocking in at only 5% ABV. It's not refreshing, but I agree with the brewery when they say on their site that it tastes like it "won’t make you pay for it the next morning." Dry-leaning finish with a pretty good blanket of carbonation and a solid smooth overall palate character. Honestly, this is solid, but I won't reach for it again. If I ever saw this at a bar and the other selections were rather meh, I would probably order it, but it's kind of like a slightly new-school take on the classic SNPA formula without much to separate itself from the pack. I think the issue mostly lies in the rather boring flavor profile that doesn't follow up on what is promised in the nose as well as it probably should.