Dude Chilling Pale Ale
R & B Brewing Co.

Solid tasting Mount Pleasant pleaser

 

 

Who wouldn't want a beer named, Dude Chilling ? I bought the 650 ml bottle at Beverly Corners Craft Beer store on Vancouver Island, with the hope it would be a great Sunday lazy brew. I generally like IPA, but I'll pretty much drink any beer. This is an American Pale Ale style, and nice one at that. A complex blend of magical hops, Citra, Centennial, and Galaxy. A mouth burst of flavour. Tropical fruit, warm peppery spice and a lovely dry finish. A really pleasant pale ale, that is unfiltered and a hazy blonde colour. A feathery lacing and a full two finger head. A solid pale ale and worthy of the The Dude.

 

R & B Brewing 'Dude Chilling' @ 5.2% , served from a 650 ml bottle purchased for $5.50
A-pour is light gold from the bottle to a clear gold in the glass with a medium off-white head leaving a streaky lace along the pint
S-hoppy mostly citrus
T-clean & crisp
MF-ok carbonation , medium body
Ov-just an ok beer
prost LampertLand

 

 

473ml can, the second of two new brews from this somewhat reborn brewery to recently show up in their neighbouring province.

This beer pours a hazy, pale golden yellow colour, with a teeming tower of puffy, rocky, and somewhat chunky off-white head, which leaves some splendid layered cirrus cloud pattern lace around the glass as it very lazily recedes.

It smells of mildly dank pine resin, gritty and grainy pale malt, muddled domestic citrus rind, a hint of phenolic yeastiness, and further leafy, weedy, and spicy green hop bitters. The taste is grainy and crackery pale malt, some indistinct tropical fruity notes, more wan orange and white grapefruit citrus peel, a bit of hard water stoniness, some still extant yeasty 'character', and decently heady earthy, piney, and musty floral verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly understated in its plebeian frothiness, the body a so-so medium weight, and generally smooth, I suppose, the hops playing nice with the locals here, it would seem. It finishes trending dry, the plain grainy malt and mixed hops making silly faces at each other.

Overall, this is a pleasant and engaging version of the style (more Yankee than British, IMHO), with a nicely balanced bitterness that makes for a drinkability that I could really get into, had I bought more than the single can. Ah well - that's something that is easily rectified, methinks. Oh, and this dude definitely abides, in addition to simply chilling.

 

Poured from a 650 ml bottle.
A: Pours a slightly hazy light golden with a nice thick white head and good lacing.
S: A mild wet grass hoppy nose some pine and floral there also.
T: The hops stand out in this one nicely a nice bitter hit .
F: Crisp clean finish nice hops to malt.
O: A really clean hoppy Pale Ale a nice surprise.

 

I'll admit straight off that pale ales are not my favourite, but I had to try this one because of the name. For anyone who doesn't know, Dude Chilling Park is a park in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver's east side, a few blocks from the intersection of Main and Broadway, and not far from Main Street, Brassneck, 33 Acres, and of course, R&B. It used to be known as Guelph Park, but someone put up a fake sign made to look like the official city ones renaming it Dude Chilling Park. The sign got taken down by the city, people campaigned to bring it back, and the city relented and put up an official sign. The dude chilling of Dude Chilling Park is a public art piece called Reclining Figure that depicts someone hanging out on the grass, leaning back with legs crossed. It's an excellent place to enjoy some beers outside, or even take a free yoga class.

Anyway, now to the beer.

A couple of details from the bottle:
40 IBU, dry-hopped with Citra, Centennial and Galaxy hops

A: Gold and clear, a couple fingers of head.
S: Some fruity hops - tropical fruit and citrus. Nice but quite mild. Maybe a little bit floral.
T: This is hoppy for a pale ale. Tropical fruit, lingering grapefruit bitterness.
F: Medium/thin body. Probably about what I'd expect for a pale ale.