Forward Progress
Annex Ale Project

Appearance: Poured with a single finger of head that evapourated in short order, but did manage to leave a bit of lace while it lasted. The body is a completely opaque yellow, so much so that the body carbonation can't be gleaned.

Smell: Dry hops with cirtus (predominantly grapefruit and floral notes. Potency is fine and didn't need warming to come out. Good and strong, but a bit run of the mill here.

Taste: This tastes like it's trying to be two different beers, a juicy New England IPA and a regular fairly even kilter Pale Ale and it can't decide which. It starts with more orangey citrus with a touch of biscuit, but then it varies. It either offers a mild citrus juiciness with a slight grapefruit touch you'd expect from a New England version, but sometimes it's a slame of the bitter side of grapefruit with floral notes. Both are done well, but the incosnsintency as you drink isn't making this enjoyable.

Mouthfeel: Since the main profile of the beer seems to shift wildly, I can't really say the transisitioing works, as a coin flip down bitter or juicy lane with every sip isn't something I want. The carbonation does manage to well accent whichever note presents itself and the bitterness doesn't cling very much. It's just a bit too dry though at the end of the day.

Drinkability: Medium body that doesn't quite settle down well in the gut and the dry note ruins the refreshing juiciness. That said, there is fun to be had with this beer, but it's more a case of it not being my cup of tea then that it's not done well.

Final Thoughts: A weird pale ale with an indentity crisis, but at least it's fun. If you can't decide what kind of pale ale you want today, try two in this one beer. That said, it's not for me.

 

 

 

Annex Ale Project 'Forward Progress' @ 5.2% , served from a 473 ml can
A-pour is a light gold from the can to a slight hazy gold in the glass with a medium size white head leaving a spotty lace along the tulip
S-Citra & Mosaic hops give a hint of dankness
T-nice hoppy pale ale , almost tart with a slight bitter swallow
MF-ok carbonation , medium body
Ov-a Pale Ale that is very similar to an IPA , which is not a bad thing
prost LampertLand

 

 

Great beer, easily one of the best APAs in Canada and my go to beer in Calgary, AB.

I rarely say this about Pale Ales, but this almost drinks like an IPA. It’s super dense, loaded with Citra and Mosiac varietals of hops to give it a multifaceted finish. Honestly it kind of feels like two beers in one, an unrefined super cloudy Citra Ale and a loaded APA with a ton of Mosiac hopes. It’s rare for even legit ISA to be this layered, it really is at an IPA level of hops.

Here how about this, let’s just call it a Double American Pale Ale, because it really drinks like a Double IPA without the super high alcohol content. Good beer, you can’t go wrong here at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

650ml bottle - another Small Batch offering from this Calgary craft brewing concern. No idea what the name is implying here.

This beer pours a hazy, pale golden yellow colour, with two fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly off-white head, which leaves some decent abstract art lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of dank pine resin, grainy and bready cereal malt, muddled domestic citrus peel, some damp minerality, and more leafy, weedy, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy pale malt, a mixed fruit bowl of tropical and more plebeian examples, stone paths after a good rain, and more zingy leafy, weedy, and piney verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite tame in its palate-disappointing frothiness, the body an adequate medium weight, and essentially smooth, with nothing really causing any sort of friction here. It finishes trending dry, the crackery malt and lingering forest floor detritus hops making it so.

Overall - this comes across as an amalgam of the various pale ale styles, and a good one, at that. Nice and hoppy, without encroaching too much on IPA territory, I don't know if this is actual forward progress, but I am content with the status quo feeling that I am getting right now.