Pale Ale
Black Kettle Brewing Company

 

 

 

650ml bottle - after the letdown that was their IPA, let's see how this outfit approaches a simple pale ale.

This beer pours a mostly clear, bright medium copper amber colour, with two skinny fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly ecru head, which leaves some spectral and tendril-like lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of bready and sort of doughy pale malt, some muddled pome and berry fruitiness, and gentle earthy, leafy, and herbal hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy caramel malt, nice, if indistinct red berry notes, white breakfast biscuits, and more tame leafy, earthy, and somewhat floral green hoppiness.

The bubbles are fairly supportive in their workaholic frothiness, the body an anemic middleweight, and generally smooth, nothing really kicking about here that might be cause for concern. It finishes off-dry, the basic bitch malt holding court, while the fruity and flora essences waft off into the ether.

Overall, it seems like Black Kettle has tidied up a number of brewing faults in this latest batch (hard to know without bottle dating, of course) - I'm not getting any of the diacetyl issues previously mentioned, just a plain, lightly hopped, and biscuity pale ale. From my solo standpoint, this is all right.

 

Black Kettle Brewing 'Pale Ale' @ 5.4% , served from a 650 ml bottle purchased for $5.50
A-pour is gold from the bottle to a slightly hazey golden amber in the glass with a decent size white head leaving a large spotty lace along the pint
S-buttery popcorn (wtf) ?
T-again a buttery popcorn dominates
MF-ok carbonation , medium body
Ov-this batch of beer has had something go wrong with it , caution
prost LampertLand

I can't recommend this great beer enough. It has a full bodied flavour, slightly sweet with a hint of hops to round it off. Black Kettle produce some of the best beers in the Lower Mainland but it compares well against my favourite real ales from back home in UK. Awesome.

Diacetyl bomb. Obviously something went wrong here. Lots of butter/buttered popcorn in the smell and the taste. Hopefully Black Kettle can sort this out because I've enjoyed some of their other beers.

 

I hate to put in another poor review but I purchased two bombers of this "pale ale" and like the reviewer below was clearly a bad batch. Smelled of butter and hard boiled eggs, extremely turbid in both bottles. Double poor-out, sad waste of 12$. May give them another chance sometime down the road

I think I may have hit a bad batch; what otherwise would have been a straightforward pale ale was marred with what appeared to be serious diacetyl problems - reeked of butter and soft cheese and tasted much the same. Drain pour.

crisp without and bitter aftertaste

 

Hazy amber in colour. Smells of honey sweetness. Tastes about the same as the smell. It's a little boring, but it's certainly not bad.

 

L- hazy amber, off white thick head
S- sweet fermented malt
T- malty, sweet, finishes clean, malt-slight hoppy after taste
O/A- good session beer