Method West Coast Pale Ale
Deep Cove Brewers and Distillers

355ml can - I thought that this was just another one of their re-brands from a couple years back, but upon closer inspection, it isn't.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, medium golden amber colour, with three fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and somewhat bubbly ecru head, which leaves some randomly splattered chunky lace around the glass as it lazily recedes.

It smells of pungent white grapefruit, orange, and lime citrus flesh, further indistinct tropical notes, some bready and doughy caramel malt, a hint of buttered toast, and more testy leafy, weedy, and piney green hop bitters. The taste is grainy and bready caramel malt, some muddled domestic fruitiness, a bit of pineapple, guava, and kiwi exotics, faint earthy yeast, and more edgy leafy, herbal, and wet piney verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly laid-back in its lounging frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and generally smooth, with perhaps a smidgen of hop intransigence making for a minor ruckus here. It finishes off-dry, the big, almost pastry-like malt lingering in the face of some still good to go robust hop bitterness.

Overall - yeah, this is certainly a pleasantly hopped-up version of the style, the 'West Coast' moniker definitely justified, as such. However, the malt surely doesn't shirk its duties, which results in a more or less balanced offering. Good, good stuff.