Bergamot Pale Ale
Bottle Bay Brewing Co

 

a fragrant pale ale here, dosed fairly liberally with these special oranges, not sure if whole fruit or extract or something was used, but its pretty identifiable in both aroma and flavor, and the beer is tasty overall, if a bit amateur to me, but hey, these guys are still new and its nice to see a few different ideas on their beer menu. this is maybe a touch maltier than it needs to be, but its not sweet at all, its just that the springy bright flavors of the bergamot kind of want to exist in a lighter, more refreshing type of pale ale, at least it seems that way to me, scale back the grain and dry this out to the max and it would be a winner. i like the flavor of the hops with the citrus too, some similar notes, but also tangerine and meyer lemon come in, a bit of bitterness late, green and fresh to me in a tastefully dosed way, good back and forth between the two. the fermentation isnt ideal, which was the case with several of their beers i had while i was in, just a little soapy, almost giving this a wit type vibe, better here than in their kolsch, but still present, they really need to clean this up. its not way off here though, and the bergamot is still the last thing i taste. a little young in terms of its evolution i reckon, but this is a pale ale absolutely full of potential. i hope it gets realized!