12th Can
Hilliard's Beer

 

 

16 ounce can poured into wine glass
Appearance: Orange light amber , hazy, with medium head, lacing
Aroma: Smell of malt
Taste: Good initial bitter but can improve on the follow through
Mouth feel: Fizzy, a bit creamy
Overall: Good Beer, but can be better
Drank: January 28, 2016

One of my favorite Pale Ales.

If your only objective is to pound a local, cheap, and session-able American Pale Ale during Seahawks games, you've come to the right place. But if you want anything more, look elsewhere.

 

 

Good craft brew reason to drink TWELVE beers. And not fall apart... Good session piece.

 

 

 

 

Some resiny hops along with the biscuity malt taste. Dark yellow with a decent head. Plenty of carbonation and just slightly aromatic. More of the club soda with an acidic mouthfeel. Thin but not very bitter. A little metallic.

Quite gulpable but mostly of note due to the fairly low alcohol. Makes a nice swallow when you want something wet tickling your throat. From the 16 oz can purchased at 99 Bottles in Federal Way, Wash.

 

 

 

Appearance has a nice golden amber color supporting a steady dissipating head leaving nill lace. Smell of the malt and floral hops. Taste seems to have more bittering than aroma hops leaving a lingering bitterness in the aftertaste having a little of the sweetness from the malt. Mouthfeel is medium light with good carbonation. Tried it once and that'll be about it.

 

16oz can purchased at Huckleberry’s in Spokane. The best by date of “28 March 2014 (shame on Huckleberry’s for carrying old cases of this to pander to Seahawk fans!)” is stamped on the bottom of the can, as is the message “Yeast Mode!.”

Poured a hazy amber color with a thin off-white foam head that dropped fairly quickly.

Initially the nose was of herbal, medicinal smelling hops, but things became more piney as it warmed up. Grassy notes became prominent as well. The bitter, medicinal smell never entirely went away, however, instead just receding into the background.

The hop flavors don’t meld together too well. There’s a mineralish taste that doesn’t meld with anything and hangs over the beer like an ill-matched cloak.

Carbonation is too low. The mouthfeel is a little bit oily, like that of a restrained west coast style pale ale.

As a dyed –in-the-wool ‘hawks fan who’s never wavered in his fandom, I really wanted to like this beer, and am still glad someone made a beer for the fans. I just wish it was a little fresher and, frankly, better. Hilliard beers just don’t impress me, despite my having given them several chances. I’m not sure I’ll be doing any more of that.

Hazy gold with a huge off white head and some spotty lacing. Smell is nice malts with a bit of floral hops. Taste is cascade hops with an English type maltiness. Not a bad taste just a bit at odds with what it wants to be. Good flavor profile overall just a bit timid. Kind of an English PA with Northwest hops. Easy drinking low abv. so if aren't fussy about style character give it a try. Mouthfeel was a bit thin and carbonation was good. Finish is fruity lightly bitter and dry.
No particular yeast flavors noted.

The 12th can - official pounder of the 12th man. This little beer earned Hilliard's a lot of national attention. To me Hilliard's is a brewery that absolutely nails the marketing side of business - their taproom is lovely, they put on fun events, bring in good food trucks, really blow up Seahawks viewings, etc. They are very very good at that stuff. To the elitist beer community (card carrying member, myself), the beer often just doesn't hold up often times.

I don't find the 12th Can offputting in any way, but it's bland and the hop profile is pretty crappy - almost non-existent. It's a shame because I actually really like the Nautical Pale Ale as a mildly bitter and very balanced 'old school' pale.

Still, I think Hilliard's accomplished exactly what they wanted here - a low ABV pale with commercial appeal that can be consumed in volume. So, bravo I guess but it's just not very good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well this taste like a High Class Pearl Beer. You can sell truck loads of this in Texas, especially in West or south Texas. My Son in Law brought this one home and shared it, we talked about it and while I do not think it fits the PNW mold perhaps the mold is changing. I might enjoy another but that is all.

Poured from 16oz tall can into a pint glass.

Appearance: medium gold with a light haze, moderate effervescence and two fingers of pillowy ivory foam. I like it.

Smell: very malty aroma; quite bready and nutty, although thankfully not too biscuity. This beer may be too malty for some -- it is more of an English pale ale, really. I kind of like it, though.

Taste: nutty, bready, toasty and earthy. The hops don't stick out on this one, although they are definitely there. Maybe not a brilliant pale ale, but I like the earthiness of this brew.

Mouthfeel: medium-light body with a decently interesting carbonation.

Overall: OK, it's not the greatest beer ever. Am I disappointed? Perhaps; I'd like my Seahawks a little more well-represented than this. Still, it's a decently drinkable brew, if a bit malty for a pale ale.

 

 

 

 

 

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a slightly hazy, muddied golden amber with a white half finger head that dissipates slowly to a thin film and ring around the glass. Aroma of biscuit malt, slightly sweet, faint hops. Flavor follows aroma, dominated by biscuit and light toasted malt, finishing malty with a neutral hop bitterness and a hint of sourness. Medium bodied, with a decent mouth feel. I like malty beers and this one really hit the spot. I usually find low ABV beer bland in flavor, but this one delivered for me. I would not hesitate to drink this again with lunch. I do not detect the odd yeast character noted by other reviewers in this or other Hilliard's beer, so I guess I'm lucky in this case.

An extraordinary amount of thanks due beertunes for even more delicious Washington beer.

Beautiful one finger, off white, finely bubbled head retracts beneath leggy lace to a nice ring and skim island. Beneath, a fine looking, cloudy golden ale awaits.

Low strength aroma, bready, nondescript hop, grainy sweet can be found with a bit of effort. Not bad, not great.

Not much going on in the taste department, what there is not really delicious. Lightly tart yeast costars with rooty herbal and bready sweet in a sip that ends with the herbal nature taking over. Not in a good way either, almost like root beer. I think I can taste a strange note from the yeast that I can only describe as weird. Points for a unique flavor profile.

Med. body and carb., viscous, resinous, but an unpleasant amount builds. Even so I found this to be refreshing, which surprised me.

In a land of fantastic Pale Ales, perhaps the best in the history of the world, there is no reason to snag this one. Glad I got to try it always nice to taste in a beer what you never tasted before and this one is that.

A: Poured a deep orange shad with good carbonation presenting a short lived fluffy white head. Some moderate lacing and bubbles.

S: The nose had a distinct "sulfury" note with plenty of citrus. Definitely unique for an APA.

T: Initial taste yields some yeastiness with the sulfury/boiled eggs smell. A little Earthiness underneath. Their is a good amount of citrus hops packed into this beer to keep somewhat drinkable. The finish has a lingering yeast note, no hop bitterness and perhaps a little bit of bread

M: Light-medium body, well carbonated, a little sweet and that darn lingering yeast strain....

O: I mimic what beertunes says. Hilliard's has a distinct aroma, taste and feel due to the possible use of one house yeast strain. It works well, sometimes, bot not in this or several other Hilliard's beers. Not a disaster of a beer but the yeast strain used and the profile it provides to the beer made it difficult to finish