Pinsetter
Real Ale Brewing Company

RB transfer

Notes from 4/11/2020.
Poured from a 12oz bottle into a Rastal nucleated Teku glass.
The body is amber with thin off-white foam. There was no head, and a super short lived ultra thin cap. 3.00
The aroma is light in strength and of caramel, and sweet malt. There's a little complexity in the nose. 3.00
The taste is medium in strength and of caramel, biscuit and far more hops in the finish than I prefer. The sweetness is much more prominent in the aroma than the flavor. I wouldn't know this is an Amber beer by the taste. I realize this fits the profile of an American Amber but I hate it. 1.00
The feel is medium in thickness, creamy, and it has a medium-low astringency. 3.75
Overall, I thoroughly dislike it when brewers attempt to make a beer stand out by adding a large quantity of hops. I wouldn't have purchased it if I had known. Real Ale is one of my favorite brewers but I detest this beer. 1.00

 

 

 

 

 

Initial impression from a bottle:

I'd sooner have Freedom Reserve or Yuengling, but this is easily above average.

C+ / ABOVE AVERAGE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12 oz. bottle poured into pilsener
(best before July 19, 2017)

L: orange-brown, more bronze than copper and not much red; clear; pushes up almost 1-inch head of offwhite foam that sticks a little; MASSIVE activity in the glass, hundreds and hundreds of bubbles everywhere and creating a thick collar and full skin of offwhite/beige foam; laces a little; overall a fantastic show

S: caramel, butterscotch with most of the sweet taken out, dark dried fruits, just a hint of earthy hops underneath the fruity dark-malt notes; apricot, peach ... lightly toasted or like a peach pie; slight bit of yeasty dust, almost abbey ale-like

T: similar to the nose but with a sizable earthy hop bite ... the mix of malt and hops can get a little like candied orange or mango, but the hops try to stay more Old World earthy than American fruity or citrusy; a big swallow gets those dirty earthy hops in there and allows them to really bite down, whereas they come off a bit more mangoey with smaller sips; malt is dark enough to almost push in a slight roasted wood flavor, but it's very faint ... might be the earthy hops lingering in the aftertaste

F: relatively soft for such a large show of carbonation; the collar and skin you have to drink through softens it some, making it an easy quaff, close to midweight

O: very close to nailing the California Common style that inspired it with a solid earthy hop bite; the malts haven't full overtaken the hops in my bottle despite it being a month away from its best-by date, which is pretty impressive because there's clearly a lot of malt in it; tasty and a nice complement to Real Ale's Hans Pils; an instant entry into my rotation ... I'll be drinking this often

Poured from bottle into pint glass. Crystal clear amber with quickly dissipating thin white head. Not much on nose. First taste is "beer". A little bitter in the first taste but mellows quickly, breads and toasted but flavor. Light and goes down easy. A decent amber.