Cheeky Session
Powell Street Craft Brewery

Powell St. Brewery 'Cheeky Session' @ 4.5% , served from a 650 ml bottle purchased for $6.80
A-pour is clear yellow from the bottle to a pale gold in the glass with a large white head leaving a streaky lace along the pint
S-melon , fresh berries , orange peel
T-light yet crisp , tart/bitter swallow
MF-lots of carbonation , medium body
Ov-just an ok beer
prost LampertLand

 

 

650ml bottle. So is it 'Powell Street Brewery', or 'Powell Brewery', then? Onto the product at hand: a self-proclaimed 'West Coast Social Ale'.

This beer pours a clear, bright pale golden yellow colour, with two fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and chunky off-white head, which leaves a bit of low-hanging streaky and sudsy lace around the glass as it quickly and evenly subsides.

It smells of gritty and grainy pale malt, some musty orange and white grapefruit citrus rind, a hint of earthy yeastiness, and further leafy, weedy, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is crackery and grainy pale malt, an ethereal caramel sweetness, mixed domestic citrus peel, a hint of guava, pineapple, and kiwi tropical fruitiness, and more herbal, piney and estery floral verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly tame in its sanguine-seeming frothiness, the body a so-so medium weight, and mostly smooth, with perhaps a touch of piney and floral hops traipsing clumsily through the metaphorical tulips here. It finishes trending dry, the malt showing some concerning cracks, while the hoppy bitterness starts to find another gear.

Overall, this is certainly one cheeky little 'session' ale, the hops the star of the show, exhibiting essences from around the world. Yet the base malt seems like it's barely holding things together, and that might get a bit tiresome after a spell. I'll find out, I guess, what with the rest of this bomber to polish off.