NW Pale Ale
The Hidden Mother Brewery

a very solid pale, very california to me, almost hoppier in perception than their ipa, clear from the tap at the brewery, bright and piney, simple on the grain side, clean on the ferment, its as basic as it gets, but in beer like this there is nowhere for imperfections to hide and the cool thing here is that there arent any, its dialed in, seemingly more refined and professionally executed than some of their other beers, although they definitely do some experimental and fermentation forward stuff so thats kind of unfair to them, the point is that this is rather brilliantly done, bold for the style, simple flavors brought together in the right way. the grain is fresh and has a light honey thing to it but well short of caramelized, the hops are pine forward but not oily or lingering, and they provide some bite, a higher alpha push at the finish, but clean on the swallow. high carbonation, lighter body, this is an all season drinker and to me a better beer than their house ipa, although the two are quite different. maybe the most basic drink on their menu, but also one of the best ive tasted so far...

Pours a nice clear looking straw color. There's a beautiful 3 finger white and very fluffy head. I like the retention, and appearance. There's some lacing that lingers on my glass.
The nose, well, I'm not liking it. There's a weird aroma that isn't sitting well with me.
Taste - This is better than the aroma. There's a nice bit of pine from the hops here. There's some malt/biscuit flavors here. There's a bit of bitterness as well.
There's a bitter feeling here. Clean feeling.
Interesting beer. I'm not a fan of the aroma, but the flavor is good.