Full Moon
Alley Kat Brewing Company

 

Like some other reviewers, I was (and still am) a die hard fan of the Full Moon APA.

This new Full Moon IPA is a variation on the Full Moon theme, but unfortunately changes the subtlety that made the original APA a fantastic session beer, and now is less than the sum of its parts.

I had avoided the IPA for months after first trying it, but had pint of it on tap last weekend. The hop bitterness is more assertive, but it seems to be more of the same, than improving on the original balance of the APA. The beer's appearance and the mouthfeel are still there, though.

I did not notice anything I could directly attribute to the slightly increased ABV, but I think I need a few more pints to be certain.

While I hope and pray they bring back the Full Moon APA (the pessimist in me suggests they won't), I am a little disappointed that my favourite beer has changed, and not for the better.

 

341 ml bottle.

A: Bright orange with minimal head and spotty lacing.

S: Very bready with mild caramel and almost imperceptible orchard/tree fruit. Lingering perfume

T: Malt forward. Crackers, orchard fruit. The lingering perfume on the nose follows in the taste. Slight bitterness.

F: Medium body, light to medium carbonation.

O: Having never tried the generally better regarded Full Moon Pale Ale, I am unable to compare the two beers. As a self-proclaimed American IPA, this enters a crowded shelf space filled with many superior offerings. Like other reviewers I am confused by the style this is given, but unable to say what I think it should be called. A passable offering from a good brewery, and glad to have tried this, but not something to seek out.

Many months ago I grabbed some of the last bottles of the original APA and did a blind taste test with the new IPA formulation. I tried it on several occasions over a week and the verdict was always for the original. IMHO Alley Kat took a near perfect, almost session, Pale Ale (albeit on the hoppy side) and messed it up. This new IPA has lost the balance. While a little hoppier to make it into an IPA this has simply added bitterness without character. The additional .5% alcohol may be almost imperceptible but it certainly does nothing useful, while moderately reducing the smoothness. The craft brewing scene does not need yet another IPA in that crowded segment!

Bottom line is that Alley Kat took a great, extremely drinkable, and somewhat unique APA; messed around with the recipe a bit; and turned it into a merely competent IPA just to put that tired moniker on it.

Original Full Moon was one of my stock beers, new one no longer...

 

I would echo previous reviewers who long for the Pale Ale version of Full Moon. Alley Kat knows its way around hops (see the Dragon Series) but this is a bit of a letdown in terms of IPA's. This is a pleasant enough beer, but it is lacking a distinctive hop presence.

 

Pours a dark clear yellow orange with white head that leaves some lacing.

Nose was mostly bready malt, caramel. Slight hops.

Taste follows nose exactly.

I'm a big supporter of Alley Kat a local brewery that makes good beer. I loved the Pale Ale. It had a very nice bitter hop finish. I'm not sure why they'd mess with it. I don't know how fresh this beer is but the hops are mostly notable in their absence. I found the Pale Ale more hoppy. This is very malty. I'm not sure what to make of it.

I was a big fan of the Pale Ale ancestor. But this upgraded version is really impressive. Hoppy beer with minimal malty presence, which is very fine with me. Long lasting bitter and pleasant aftertaste. Unlike Biboergosum I find this beer very west coast. And for the price, this beer is unbeatable. Alley Kat should have kept both versions of Full Moon; but honestly I would pick the IPA version over the APA version most of the time.

341ml bottle - this is apparently Alley Kat's reaction to a realization that local beer drinkers have arrived, so much so that they dare to mess with their, IMHO, best year-round offering. Specs-wise, this is Full Moon, with a slight uptick in IBUs, and a single additional point of alcohol proof, which to beat the hell out of a tired metaphor, is certainly in the pudding.

This beer pours a clear, medium bronzed amber hue, with three fingers of puffy, moderately foamy, and bubbly ecru head, which leaves some decent layered tabletop cloudy lace around the glass as it easily slips away.

It smells of bready, crackery pale malt, further indistinct cereals, lemon and orange citrus rind, a bit of earthy, clammy yeast, some hard water flintiness, and further leafy, grassy, and floral hops. The taste is solid bready caramel malt, mixed citrus and drupe orchard fruits, a level earthy chalk essence, and soft leafy, floral, and ever so slightly perfumed and soapy hops.

The bubbles are quite understated, manifesting in a pleasant frothiness, and no more, the body an adequate middleweight, and generally smooth, a small burbling effervescence nothing to worry about. It finishes off-dry, the bready, sort of doughy caramel malt still slap-fighting the tame leafy, citrusy, and grassy hops.

Yeah, Full Moon Pale Ale was (is?) a heck of a better pale ale, than this is an IPA. I was assured that this was American in orientation, but I'm not so certain - I can't tell if it's more ESB-like, or just backsliding into APA territory. Not a bad brew by any stretch of the imagination, but if you're gonna make the leap into the IPA realm, the goods, they must be brought. Anyway, I'm a little too emotionally invested in this, so the best thing I can do is get some of the pale ale, and do a little sit down comparative tasting.