Patuxent Pale Ale
Mully's Brewery

 

 

 

 

 

 

My wife picked this up at a farmer's market in Olney last weekend along with some other samplings form Mully's, a brand new brewery for me. Cloudy light amber color with decent head and lace. Nose has citrus and herbal hops, neither in abundance.

Again with the citrus and herbal notes up front, but not much to back it, plus the aftertaste goes the unfortunate sawdust in your mouth route. It's not terrible, but not good. It's just remarkably unremarkable. The texture is also a bit on the thin and watery side. I wouldn't order this in a bar unless it was as a desperation ploy.

Had at the brewery. It's super cloudy and pretty dark orange in color. Smells hoppy and slightly spicy, with moderate maltiness. Taste seems more bitter than the average pale ale, a pretty strong citrussy hop flavor is apparent right away. The feel is medium bodied, to the extent that I don't feel like I have room for another. Overall a good local beer from my home county.

Poured from the bottle into a nonic pint glass.

Deep honey golden body color, clear, and copper edges and glowing orange. A multitude of hues come right thoughout the entire body. Head is fluffy topped, off white with big retention and easy three fingers height. Big creamed island top and pill like lacing as it settles. Aggressive and large, great looking beer sans a bit hint of haze and no noticeable carbonation strangely.

Clean caramel malt and small sensing soft hop hits of pine and citrus. Has an almost cracker like malt sensing body, but quite subtle. Some honey like sweetness hits as well. Solid pale ale so far.

Palate hits sort of… how should I put this… real good but empty? Very good malt backbone, but with muted caramel sweetness but with a good coating. A slight hop twinge a bit that is not really distinguishable, sort of comes off as spicy strangely than anything. Finishes with a bit of almost English like ale yeast but manages to be quite neutral in the end. A good lingering pine bitterness that grows on the swallow is a nice touch.

All the parts are here but there's sort of nothing to distinguish them from each other. This is one of the most neutral pale ales I think I have ever had. Drinks real easily, but even subtley here is far too low unfortunately. Either way a decent pale ale is to be had, but not much to think about here.

I thought that I got this from my local, in-person trader, tone 77, but he does not have a review entered so either I beat him to the punch (unlikely) or this came from another source. Grrr. Plus, it's a bottle, which does nothing to improve my mood.

From the bottle: "Complex malt flavors mated to a generous portion of flowery and citrus hops. It's a crisp, clean copper ale perfectly suited for those who enjoy a full-flavored, hop-forward craft beer. Hop flavors and aromas of pineapple, lemon, and stone fruits mated to a malt backbone of 2-row and Pilsner make for a very quaffable and balanced beer."; "Please recycle [-] Keep our environment beautiful and clean."; "drink local".

After Pop!ping the cap, I felt conflicted between an aggro pour & a gentle one. I went with the latter & still got a finger of solid, dense, rocky, tawny head with good retention. Color was a cloudy Deep Amber/Light Copper to Copper (SRM = > 13, < 17). Nose was definitely lemony, but I did not get much else. Mouthfeel was medium. The taste was very lemony, somewhat biscuity and once more, I found myself wishing for some Enrico's lemon biscotti from The Strip District in Da 'Burgh. This, to me, is what an APA should taste like. Not overly hopped, but just enough to separate it from other Pale Ales and certainly not as heavily hopped as an AIPA. I have had a number of supposed APAs recently that seemed to forget where an APA ends and an AIPA begins. I am a hophead, but I don't like surprises. Calling a beer an APA and then making it super hoppy is not on. I really liked the long, lingering finish. It was dry, but the taste of the combined hops and malt really lingered well past the swallow. This was tasty and refreshing, which is always a plus IMHO.

The beer pours a nice and fluffy head that takes a bit to dissipate. The beer itself is a hazy gold color. The look isn't bad and a bit decent even if it is a bit off of the style guidelines.

The smell is nice but is a little too yeasty. The smell certainly has a citrus hop bitterness to it but not strong enough to balance out the yeast notes.

The taste is nice as well. The beer has a fairly balanced note between the malt and hop note but mainly because the hop note is a bit light and dull when compared to other beers. The hop bitterness is a bit of a loose citrus note while the malt comes off as a nice bready note.

The feel is okay. It's medium bodied with a bit of thickness and fluffy carbonation to it. The taste is bearable and not bad.

Overall, an okay pale ale and hits the right taste and smell notes. It isn't the best pale ale but it gets the job done. If there's nothing else or you're looking for a very local beer, I'd say go for it.