Hopstate NY (2015)
Brewery Ommegang

 

Good pale ale. Copper color; small, white head. Malty, floral, and citrus notes in the aroma. Good balanced taste: malt, citrus hop, and some caramel. Decent bitterness in the aftertaste

 

Enjoyed a couple of these on tap at the brewery. Nothing stands out about this beer as being an exceptional PA, but it's a well done beer with pleasant citrus from the hops (not sure which varieties are in there). I would enjoy it again but wouldn't say it's worth going out of your way for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picked this up in Totowa last week, having never had this before. Any beer that has local hops and the Statue of Liberty on the bottle automatically goes into my queue here at home so I was eager to give this a go. Given that this was an APA and not a Belgian-style beer like most of Ommegang's other offerings, I was hoping that this would be a bit different than what I've come to expect from them. While certainly tasty and well-crafted, I was hoping for a bit more hops and deviation from the Belgian Pale Ale that this reminded me of in the end!

Good golden hue to this pour with the trademark voluminous head that one would come to expect from an Ommegang beer. Lots of floaties in this, which always happens with something like this even though I do pour slowly as the instructions on the bottle state! Lots of coriander and floral notes in the nose with a mouthfeel that was juicier than I would have been led to believe. White bread spice and a hint of citrus in the aftertaste and the hops feel more European than American, which I know was not the case with this beer. Good carbonation and a dry, grassy aftertaste separated this from other APA's but there was just a lingering sense of resin to remind me of what this beer was, stylistically.

While not a session beer, the booze was not noticeable here until the end of the bottle and I could feel it complementing the lingering mouthfeel and Belgian-tasting yeast. Hopheads may be a bit disappointed in this but fans of Ommegang will appreciate their attempt to make something local that stayed true to their brewing roots. Lots going on here with nothing extraneous, and certainly worthy of the icon on the bottle!