Purgatory Pale Ale
Empire Brewing Company

4 oz. sampler poured into a tasting glass. Pale amber color with off-white foamy head that slowly dissipates leaving some lacing. Aroma of citrus, pine and some malt sweetness. Taste of caramel, malt and a dry citrus/pine finish. Nicely balanced and a good example of the style. Medium bodied with good drinkability.

Sampled at teh Brewpub on 11-02-07 and entered here using copious notes taken while quaffing.

A-Very cloudy amber. Loose bubbled head that off-white with yellowish tinges throughout. The head hung around for a while but did fall to a splotchy coat with minimal lce.

S-Not a lot of aroma here. Some biscuit malt and pine hops.

T-Really nice biscuit malts, toasty in a way. Caramel malts as well. Green and pine hops come in the middle and last long after the swallow. A well balanced pale.

M-Nice medium body and good carbonation

D-right up there, I could session this one.

Serving type: on-tap

The beer pours a cloudy gold color with a thick frothy white head that slowly fades to lacing. The aroma is decent. It has a nice pale malt scent along with a mild hop aroma. Nothing is too pronounced here. The taste is good. It has a solid pale malt base along with a very bitter hop taste. It's quite hoppy with some yeast esters adding balance and complexity. The mouthfeel is fine. It is a medium bodied beer with low/adequate carbonation. This is a pretty good pale ale with excellent hop character. I'm beginning to notice that hops are playing a huge role in most of their beers.

I sampled a 1/2 pint of this beer on a recent trip to Canada. The beer is served in a stemmed sample glass with minimal surface layer of off white head foaming up. Beer is actually very hazy orange to copper hued. The haze is a litte unexpected, more settling time??
Aroma is fairly hoppy with grass and pine and some citrus rind as well. Not over powering. There is an average body with very fine fizzy yet gentle carbonation.
Flavor is crisp hops with citrus rind and general leafy plant/grass notes. No hint of ABV very easy to drink, would be nice on a hot day.

This is a wonderful drink. It's a nice amber color, with modest head and some nic lacing. The flowery smell of hops jumps right out at you, and the taste is not much different. You feel a bit of fruitiness, but the hops are what dominate your palate. Good bitterness to it, with a smooth. and almost sweet, finish. The gang at EBC is just getting back into the swing of things, which means it's all only gonna get better! (In Syracuse anyways.)

This brew poured out a rich golden out of the 64 oz. growler, a color reminding me of iced tea, cascading to a crystal clear. The head was minimal, and receded into a patch of thin foam which stayed throughout most of the rest of the beer. A fine ring of lace also remained and was barely noticable slowly receding down the inside of the glass. The aroma first hit me as being much like the smell of carrot and mango juice, with raisins and grapefruit hints lingering behind those. The first sip brought a refreshingly light, crisp feel to my mouth. The taste starts with a mellow flash of bitter, quickly receding into a smooth malt, while the hoppy flavor makes itself more clearly evident soon after. The smell of the grapefruit seemed to carry over to join the hoppy taste, leaving the other fruity sensations behind. Although the malt remain throughout, the hops win out in the aftertaste leaving a sharp note in the nasals and a strong desire to drink more. The end of the glass brought with it the realization of this brews higher alcohol content, leaving me in a delightfully warm and fuzzy state. This is one of the more complex beers I have tasted. Definately worth a trip to the local beer emporium.

I managed to get a hold of a growler of this IPA, and I was not disappointed. The thin tan lace contrasts handsomely with Purgatory's dark golden color. The head receded quickly, and as a result I did not expect much carbonation, which turned out to be the case. A light, almost fruity, smell was overpowered by a sudden and hearty hoppiness in the initial taste, which lingered and transformed as it moved to the back of my throat. The middle of the taste is quite bitter on the palate, but the finish is sweeter than one might expect. This draft morphs in a convincing and appealing manner.

Poured a true ambered-orange color, glowing like a light bulb. Had a fair foamy head, decent spotty lace, and left lots of stain despite how quickly I drank and quaffed it.

Smelled wonderfully of fruit and floral hops. The fruit scent was stronger and had an intoxicating angle to it: of honeycomb honey and a spot of a cinammon kind of spice. Then the dried flower scent snaps you back. Sure there is a good malt behind it all but the hops are too intriguing to dig for them.

Taste was of an interesting bitter, as bittering and salty as it is fruity, and a juicy fruitiness. Both hit me at the same time, and created a sort of grapefruit combination. Great malt backbone, good balance, the heaviest of the bitterness came on very late but turned into an extremely long and drying finish. It flowed into a continuing developing bitter, becoming more earthy yet reminding me of the fruitiness that it was originally paired with.

Pretty good mouthfeel, barely thicker than water. In all, a delight to drink. Very interesting, made me drink it way too fast, as this not your average pale is said to be brewed with a different than normal mix of hops. (At least that's what Shiredave said as he filled my growler)

This is a delicious pale ale. Very hoppy, thin malt character, but very tasty. Floral aroma with an excellent hop bite. Crisp, clean citrus flavor with very little hop aftertaste. This is a must try in the Rochester/Syracuse area. By the way, the food is excellent.

After the Berliner weisse, this one oughta be fun... Brilliant amber with a thin white head.

The aroma is a sweet malt background behind a Cascadey, citrusy hop hit. Take a sip. GRAPEFRUIT!!! with bitterness to spare, and just enough caramelly malty sweetness to balance it - almost. A flavor not dissimilar to a Gewurztraminer wine is there in the background - that sort of spicy sweetness.Finishes bittersweet, with big citrus and lesser grainy background. Entirely drinkable pale ale for PacNW hopheads.

Probably my favorite brew from Empire. There's really very little balance here though I'm not complaining. Hopheads (like me!) will love this mouthpuckering brew. Citrus and grapefruit dominate the beginning, middle and finish. There's just enough lightly toasted malt create a pale ale with excellent drinkability. Well done.