Orange Pale Ale
Old Colony Brewing

 

 

Growler poured in standard pint glass. Perfect head and nice lacing. Perfect hoppiness for pale ale with hint of orange zest. Gets better as I near the bottom of the pint- very drinkable. My favorate pale ale so far.

 

Fresh growler from the brewery, poured into a bulbed out nordic pint glass. This beer comes out a golden straw to amber, almost a dark orange color as the pool in the glass rises. Some pretty good clarity to it, only the slightest bit cloudy yet you can still see through it. A hard pour into the glass gave it a big frothing head where you have mostly small bubbles, but some larger bubbles erupted their way up and broke through the top. Some nice lacing and glass retention here the foam slowly trickles back down to the pool and the head stays pretty much the whole time.

Smell isn't very strong, but it's very good, especially for the style. After a few wiffs and swirls in the glass, you can tell you have a nice and hoppy version of the American Pale Ale. The hops come at you right away, according to what I read on the internet (so it's gotta be true right?) they use centennial and cascade hops. There's domanant notes of orange, clementine, grapefruit, plenty of citrus zest/pith that come out, but there are also some hints of lemon grass and the slightest bit of pine. Through all the hops there's a slight bready sweetness on the back end.

This is a very tastey beer. Sweetness a little more present in the flavor, as if there was a went citrus moist bunt cake, like orange or lemon poppy seed cake; slightly buttery. You can tell this is a very generously (almost aggressively) hoppy version of the style. Plenty of the above mentioned clementine, tangerine, ripe orange, and I'd say even more grapefruit flavors come out of the cascade and centennial combination. Again there are hints of fresh cut lemon grass and a little bit of pine and dill. Really good flavors that really play well together.

Mouthfeel is on point. I'd consider the body to be a light/medium feel, but since it's so well hopped it really has a nice lingering flavor. The carbonation is well done for the style and flavors, it doesn't bite at you and it's not under carbonated either. Starts slightly sweet with long portions of hoppy leading to a slightly buttery middle and a bitter finish that's slightly oily but mostly dry. Very drinkable brew good for any occasion. This would be a great beer to introduce people into craft unless they hate hops, this beer is so well hopped that if it had a bigger malt backbone they could get away with calling it an IPA.

Finally got around to getting to Old Colony Brewing and glad I did. Well done brew, I look forward to getting back there to pick up this beer again.