Pale Ale
Oak Creek Brewery and Grill

Amber in color with lots of bubble action & hoppy aroma. Fruity flavor but bitter. OK.

 

 

 

One of the more disappointing pales to come out of AZ. Yikes.

 

 

 

 

Pleasant, tangy, and quite drinkable Pale Ale. The aroma is really nice and distinctive. Handsome golden amber in the glass. Fine carbonation and a pleasant mouthfeel. Classic Pale Ale taste with plenty of hops and a nice sudsiness on the tongue.

Very light bodied. Some resins and a touch of biscuit in the flavors. Not much of any interest here, but clean and well made. Slightly tangy and thin. A little dishwatery in the aftertaste. From the 12 oz bottle bought at AJ's Fine Foods in Chandler.

 

 

 

 

 

(12oz bottle). Pours a clear pale golden color with white head. Moderate carbonation. Aroma is cardboard, grass, hay and some faint hops. Taste is a sweet malt backbone with some hop bitterness following. Medium bodied with oily texture. Finish is bitter. An ok beer that is probably past its prime a bit. Will need to re-rate at the brewery location for a fresher example.

Bottle Poured into a Pint Glass

Appearance: Poured with a nice white head. Head consisted of frothy white mountains over a slightly orangish pale liquid. Head poured like the bottle was shaken up, it had been in the fridge for a few hours.

Smell: A little sweet like bubble gum which made me quite worried. Got more hop scents as well which saved it a little bit.

Taste: Unfortunately I tasted a cheap bubble gum in the front of the tongue with a hop bitterness in the back. Not much "front of pallet flavor".

Mouthfeel: Slightly thin and watery, but not horrible.

Drinkability: A bit over carbonated. Too much of a back of the pallet taste without much up front.

T's in Tempe had singles for $1.79, so I thought I'd give this a try. 12 oz. brown bottle poured to a glass at the hotel (probably 8 oz. and of no particular 'style'). Undated label, but with the admonition to 'Please keep refrigerated'. Pulled from a cooler and consumed the same day.

A: Careful with this: pours with a fluffy head, several fingers high, a creamy ivory and some initial snap-crackle-pop fizzing. Orange-copper color with a chill haze of ultra-fine sediment (with occasional larger flecks). Steady carbonation, a few strong streams. Good lace, sticks in tight bands.

S: Lemon sherbet(?), also a slightly chalky/mineral medicinal aroma. Slightly sweetened with roasted nuts, a spiced caramel and grassy hay.

T: Nutty and full of spiced wheat, turning more citrusy (sweet grapefruit, mild mandarin, meyer lemon). Fairly pithy/bitter in the drying finish, again something mineral/chalky in there.

M: With that big carbonation showing, I expected an over-exuberant mouthfeel. Not really the case: sure it's got a pretty zesty bite, a gentle tingle- does induce some burps, too. Medium body, with a lasting hop spice that sits squarely at the center of the tongue.

D: A pretty good APA, nothing too surprising. Flavors are balanced, drinkability is good (an ABV of just 5%). I'll add another notch on my 'Breweries Reviewed' belt (#342 and counting...) and will give a moderate recommendation.

Got a single 12 oz bottle of this at a beverage store called Sedona Liquor for a taotal of $2.11 while in Sedona AZ recently on my vacation there. Poured into a pint glass. This beer is a clearmedium amber golden color with a white head 1/2-1/3 inch when poured. Settles to a medium sized ring lining the inside of my glass 5 minutes after being poured and a very decent surface layer and good lace. Smells of caramel malt and citrus hops are present and not much else. Has a good balance between a of sort of earthy, bready sweet malt flavor with slight caramel undertones and citrus hop bitterness. No single flavor dominates. Spot on for the style. Really a very good balance here. Has a crisp, frothy mouthfeel with a medium body and moderate to high carbonation. Very easy to drink. This would make a good session beer indeed.

Eric

Soft-focus orange with all sorts of dust mote-like yeasties. Due to less than spectacular head formation, I was able to get all twelve ounces into the glass with no trouble at all. Up top sits an ecru colored cap that doesn't look too bad apart from its diminutive size.

The aroma is on the shy side. It's lemon and orange fruity, which indicates at least one of the C-hops. If this beer is the same as this brewery's Doc's Pale Ale, then it uses Cascade and Centennial. Yeah, that's about right.

OCPA is an above-average pale ale. The malt is somewhat toasted, but probably contains mostly pale. I can't decide if the hops are neutralized to some extent by the malt, if there wasn't a huge amount to begin with (no sin in an APA) or if the beer has some age on it. Whatever the reason, the citric hoppiness isn't as vibrant as it could be.

Specifics include orange and lemon zest floating in a pool of watered-down caramel. Not that the beer itself is watery, but it isn't big enough (nor should it be) to deliver a sticky, melted caramel maltiness. Slightly sweet is favored early and slightly bitter is favored late. Again, there's no freshness spark, although the beer tastes far from old.

The mouthfeel earns the above score because it's a bit more full than the style average. The bubbles are laid back. More carbonation would be fine too, but if beer has to favor one direction or the other, I prefer too few bubbles rather than too many.

Oak Creek Pale Ale is a pretty good C-hop APA that probably tastes best on-tap at the brewpub. Since I have no current plans to visit Sedona, this bottle will have to do. Respectable.