Galaxy Session Pale Ale
Common Roots Brewing Company

 

 

A: The beer is quite hazy yellow in color—too hazy to see if there is any visible carbonation. It poured with a quarter finger high bright white head that died down a bit, consistently leaving a short head covering the surface, a narrow collar around the edge of the glass, and some lacing down the sides.
S: Moderate aromas of lime citrus and are present in the nose along with hints of passionfruit.
T: The taste follows the smell, having moderate flavors of lime citrus along with notes of tropical fruit—mangos and passionfruit seem to stand out in particular. There is a light amount of bitterness.
M: It feels nearly medium-bodied and a little crisp on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This beer is quite aromatic and tasty for a sessionable pale ale and really packs in a lot of interesting complexities from the Galaxy hops. It is very easy to drink.

Serving type: can

 

Cool to be the very first review for this beer! Common Roots has been somewhat inconsistent in my opinion, but I'm hoping this beer can turn the average I have for this brewery towards the "decidedly positive..."

Pours a light-ish amber color with some definite haze and a mild goldenrod highlight to it. Nice, compact head measuring about two fingers at its peak, with a really dense and rocky midpoint to the proceedings, like a fluffy island sitting atop the beer. Decent legs and pretty solid lace assist this beer for sure. Good looking stuff!

As a big fan of Galaxy hops, I was excited to see what this brewery could do with them. Luckily, this has a bit of character for only being 4.5%. Orange and grapefruit-laden scents hit me right off the bat, along with a little bit of pine and grassy notes. Pine needles and passion fruit follow up along with a little bit of hoppy funk. At first I was thinking this might be a little "off" for whatever reason, but pouring the entire can (yeast and all) into my glass mostly allayed those fears. Not sure what it was that concerned me here, but there's a little note of rock-candy that seems to have faded in the background. Perhaps some residual sugar throwing me off?

Flavor profile seems to at first be mostly honed in on tangerine, passion fruit and slightly dank hop flavors before disappearing into a rather unfocused and less-than-crisp malty middle. Wish there could've been a bit more balance going on here. I mostly get some faded maltiness and overly-heavy oat and/or wheat-forward elements here toward the finish, which seems to erase any semblance of hoppiness. Kind of a messy palate. That said, I do like the actual grain bill here, I just wish there were a little more to the dry-hop.

Feel is heavier than expected for a 4.5% beer, with a matching low-ish carbonation and long, lingering finish that seems kind of out-of-character for this style. I like the use of Galaxy here, but I don't think this is the best beer to feature these hops, and it doesn't really feel like a session IPA or hoppy APA anyway. I think I would like to try this again in a future iteration, because it seems to have some promise. It just doesn't really deliver as much as I'd like it to.