Rhöner Pale Ale
Pax Bräu

 

Orange-amber color, with a huge head.

Fantastic, multi-layered aromas of tropical fruits, orange, peach and lime, with syrupy, grassy notes, in which ripe orange stands out the most. Very harmonious, convincing aromas.

Malty, earthy beginning, soon accompanied by fruity hops. Hops turn very present on the palate, but remain on the fruity side, with bitter, malty hints. Has an incredible smooth, almost soft mouthfeel, in which the dominant fruitiness even gets enhanced by a lively, metallic carbonation, leading to a gallant bitterness during the finish. Light-bodied, but very convincing due to its fantastic taste and enjoyable balance.

 

First, look at the label. Wild, isn't it? It's unique and wonderfully memorable, yet not silly, gimmicky, in your face or offensive like many American craft beer labels. First, the picture of a body with the innards showing is cool, though I can't tell you why right now. Second, there's hops or another leaf (maybe dill or celery?) coming out of the glass, and then beer in the mouth, down the gullet into the stomach, and then pictured coming out of head, a pineapple, flowers, a lemon, an orange, a litchi fruit maybe, and a fig nest to the P in Pax, as if these are the aromas and flavors you can be expecting your mind to enjoy while drinking it.

It's 5.2%, filled on June 6 and a best by date of September 6. Today being the 17th of June, it's only 10 days old.

Appearance: Cloudy beer, dark, burnt orange to bright amber with hints of black lurking around in the shadows, all older a slightly dirty white head that dissipates within a minute. Nice to look at. The cloudiness is due to being shipped and arriving at my door yesterday, it's being unfiltered and unpasteurized, and that it's still only 2 weeks old.

Aroma: OMG, wow..., it's gonna be a challenge to describe all the aromas going on here. Definate C-hop (what with Motueka, Riwaka, Centennial and Cascade [not listed on label but mentioned on Facebook, leading me to believe it was a late edition after the label was printed.]) punch in the nose, but so, so much more. Pineapple? Yes. Lemon? Yes. Mango? Yes. Lemon? Yes. Litchi? Yes. Sweet caramel? Yes. Damn, I love it and I haven't had a sip yet.

Flavor:
Up front: Nice, bracing bitterness, yet not overwhelming, with lemon an a nice amount of tartness/astringency. You get a burnt caramel sense here, though it's hidden in the back of the flavor, as well as a stab of super-sweet sugary caramel.

Mid: More of the same as above, only now more piney, flowery, earthy and lemon-drop sweet on the sides.

Back: All those same flavors as up front and the middle, now just intenser, stronger, and a heavy dose of bitterness, but through all this, you still get a decent caramel to balance all those fruit flavors and bitterness. My am I ever blown away.

Aftertaste: Mostly bitterness and sliver of sweetness hinting at caramel lingers for a long time after the last swallow.

Mouthfeel: WOW... thick, like you expect a Märzen to be, a hint of dryness to match the tartness, but overall it feels just wonderful, like rolling around in a thick carpet under a fire on a cold day: gemütlich und süffig!

Overall: WOW, and I mean WOW, WOW and WOW. I get the feeling I'm drinking a Märzen, yet with a pale ale twist, super fruity with a plump bitterness all across the tongue. The different hops really play well together to blend and subtly change the focus of the flavor, at once super caramel, then next lots of fruits, and then a pale malt backbone, all popping up and down tongue. This really does taste like a more Frankische version of a Pale Ale with the emphasis of the sweet caramel malts in synchronicity with the bitterness and fruitiness of the hops. If someone claims you either get hops or malt, I call bullshit yet again. This is the best beer I've had since being at BrauKunstLive in February, hands down. It doesn't have the smoke or the dryness that comes from the Pils malts that are in the Cissy IPA, but it's got so many other flavors in the fruit and bitterness areas instead. The longer I drink this, the more bitterness comes to the fore, but the other flavors don't go flat at all. Again. WOW.