Wreckless (Pale Ale)
RedWillow Brewery

Cask (hand pump) at the Darlington Spring Thing Beer Festival 2011. Deep golden colour, low head. Lovely aroma of fruity hops, notes of tropical fruits / passion fruit. The flavour is also dominated by fruity hops, hints of tropical fruits, could use a little more citrussy freshness, but still good. One of the better beers of the festival.

L- Pale gold, slightly hazy, 3mm white head.
S- Mandarin orange and grapefruit.
T- Extremely sour. Predominant flavour is grapefruit.
F- Dry/sour, which seems to mask any other facets or character.
O- It doesn't even taste like beer to me, whereas it does taste like a grapefruit soda. Not one I'll buy again.
330ml can, BB 30/1/19.

Cloudy straw. Thin wispy heads.
Hoppy aroma. Tropical and citrus fruits.
Taste follows suit. Zesty. Initially sweet and then bitter.
Refreshing. The carbonation is soft but noticeable.
Nice.

 

On cask at the Glasgow Real Ale Festival. Passion fruit and orange nose and a somewhat oily feel. Taste is quite orangey to start, but subsequently the flavour is more passion fruit. Not sweet, but very good.

 

Hazy light orange color with white head. Aroma has a really fresh hop character with sweet lemons and also floral notes. Taste follows, bright and citrusy, really balanced. Hoppy but not really bitter, just a bit on the finish. Light body with soft carbonation. Overall it's an extremely drinkable pale ale, bright, citrusy and fresh.

 

 

 

 

A very well made APA style pale. Solid, hop forward with a great balance of the Citra/Amarillo hops and a malt backbone that supports rather than overwhelms. Extremely drinkable at a decent ABV.

 

 

 

bottled and bottle conditioned
Pours a clear dark blond beer, creamy white head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: very fruity, bit cheesy, mango, citrus, sweet. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: lots of citrus, pineapple, resinous, nice bitterness

 

 

Pale bronze with pocked steady off-white foam that settles to a rimming carpet and cathedrals.
Musty Citra grapefruit on the nose with some flowers and shortbread - just all a bit faint.
Fresh OJ pushes past bread dough, turning to tarter citrus as hops kick in at the end.
Bright Berocca finish and tightening sherbet linger.
Round, lt-medium, some chew, very creamy.

Citra on the nose, Amarillo on the palate. Very much an APA in its cleaness, drinkability (ABV), and restrained hopping that stresses aroma.

Simple, but deserves the plaudits.

Purchased from the BeerRitz online beer shop; bottle-conditioned in a 500ml slim brown bottle, BB March 2014, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass. Notes: according to the website of the brewery, Citra and Amarillo hops are used in this brew. Also, it has won a Gold medal in the SIBA National Champion 2012 challenge in the Premium Bitter category, and is awarded Silver in the Supreme Champion category.

A: pours a dark golden colour, with sizable bits of yeast sediments floating in the beer, as the constant flows of carbonation buttresses a well-lasting, thick layer of off-white frothy head.
S: very aromatic and estery, almost like a cross between those exotic-fruity and yeasty Belgian pale ales and hoppy (but very pale take on the) American pale ale style; the hop mixture shows sweet white grapefruits, green mangoes and passion fruits, underlined by a rather substantial aroma of mildly lactic yeastiness much in common with a Belgian strand of ale. Intensive sweetness comes from very pale malts in the background. All in all, lively hoppy and estery, not without a good input from the pale malts.
T: effervescent on the palate, the foretaste is pleasantly hoppy, showing signs of sweet grapefruity notes from the American hops on a par with thin-bodied maltiness; as the flavour settles, the mildly spicy and citrus-peel-like tannic bitterness creeps up but only in a moderate manner, lightly chewy, just about enough to render a good depth. Pretty “quiet” in the aftertaste, where the remaining exotic estery elements serve to prolong the enjoyment by a small margin. A few sips down the throat, interestingly the bitter feel of the hops comes more forward.
M&O: refreshing on the palate as a result of successful bottle-conditioning, this medium-bodied and deliciously hoppy pale ale shows a more pronounced nose than flavour profile, but all in all very clean, balanced, and a good candidate for a session type of APA. A well-deserved winner on the SIBA awards, but I suspect those are for the draught version. I can’t wait to try it on cask!