Random Acts
Situation Brewing

 

1L howler from the brewery - at just over the cost of a pint in their attached pub - aaaaah, socializing is overrated anyway, yeah?

This beer pours a clear, medium copper amber colour, with two flabby fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and certainly bubbly ecru head, which leaves some undulating waveform pattern lace around the glass as it quickly beats it outta Dodge.

It smells of slightly dank pine resin, musty generic citrus rind, gritty and grainy pale malt, a touch of lost-seeming yeastiness, and more plain leafy, weedy, and grassy green hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy pale malt, an ethereal sense of caramel sweetness that really, really wants to be a real boy, sharp underripe citrus zest, retreating earthy yeast measures, and more edgy leafy, floral, and mildly herbal hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly understated in its coy at times frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and mostly smooth, the hops peeking around a bit, kicking a few tires, but generally seeming disinterested in making a fuss. It finishes trending dry, the acerbity of the now almost metallic pine and testy citrus starting to undermine the base malt's structural integrity.

Overall, this is a pleasant enough hoppy pale ale, although the typical (as espoused in their marketing blurb) pine and citrus elements come off as a little too mixed and muddled to actually consider this as all that much above average. Hey, s'all good - Sierra Nevada had to start someplace too.