Waimea Bay Pale Ale
Waimea Brewing Company

Bottle from Park Lane Liquor in Lancaster, CA. This beer pours a deep golden color with a thin white head that diminishes rapidly. Thing stringy lacing on the glass. Toasted grain and malt in the nose along with touches of hops. Medium-bodied with flavors of hops, grainy malt and some lemon. The finish is moderately hoppy with notes of hay and malt left over. All in all this is pretty standard stuff.

Hazy bronze colored with a decent light tan head and active carbonation. Toasted biscuit malt aroma with a touch of hops and light fruitiness. A malty and fruity dominated Pale Ale with hints of orange peel. Good balance but hops are subdued. Medium bodied with decent creaminess and a nicely balanced finish.

Not really to APA style (leans EPA) or to my tastes but not bad...

Per BOM notes: 40 IBU. 5.4% ABV
Malts: 2-Row Pale, Caramel, Munich, and Wheat
Hops: Chinook and Simcoe

BOTM...

Pours light orange hue with a light foamy short head. Decent carbonation. Nose is light citrusy and flowery hops. Taste is pretty decent, a good blend of light hops and sweetish light grassy notes. Easy to down, and not too heavy at all. Not bad, but nothign special.

This beer was received as part of the MicroBeerClub shipment received at the end of August.

Beer poured a golden orange with a very nice two fingered head that sustained well. Nose was a bit off for the style, slightly toasted malts were predominate. Taste is the same toasted malts, and finishes with a slight citrus hop. Mouthfeel is light to medium bodied. It flows well over the palate. Drinkability is pretty good, especially for the tropical climate.

Poured a hazy golden colour with a frothy, white head. Pepper, citrus and bread aromas, slight sweet. Pretty bitter from the start when it was cold, but mellowed with more malt flavours as it warmed in the glass. Floral and fruity, strong grapefruit flavours. Finishes quite dry. Not a bad beer, but not one that I would seek out very often.

Selection of the Beer-of-the-Month Club.
Poured a hazy apricot color with sparse white head. Minimal lacing. Smell is sweet and doughy. Taste is dominated by hops, especially as the beer warms, and the malt takes a distinct background. Nice dry bitter finish. A good beer, but not anything special.

12 oz bottle, part of my Beer of the Month offerings, no freshness date that I could find, poured into a pilsner glass

A—pours hazy orange amber with a ½ inch foamy tan head that slowly collapses into a thin sheet, lacing is thick and plentiful

S—citrus hops and some mild pepper, bready malts are faint, it’s on the sweeter side in the nose

T—mild citrus hops with a little of the bready flavor that I smelled, leans toward bitter, but not too much, finishes on the dry side

M—medium/lighter bodied, smooth, with a drier finish, good carbonation

D—it’s good. A nice pale ale that is very easy to drink

12oz bottle from a 6-pack purchased ($7.99 at LaBodega in Riverside, CA) for consumption at a Hawaiian/Polynesian music & dance show at a local Country Club last night. This one escaped the crowds somehow.

Pours a decent slightly hazy amber-orange with a nice but small head, collapsing to a barely existant cover in a hurry.

Aroma is biscuit malt and a fruitiness that I don't necessarily associate with Pale Ales- slightly citrus, but more pear/apricot in tone. Not bad, in fact quite appealing, but not what I expected. No hops to speak of. But when tasted, there comes the subtle hops that tease the taste buds/nerves in the back of my mouth. Grassy, slightly oily, fruit hidden there too. Gentle hops as an APA should be- no confusing this with SNPA. But still quite tasty in its own way.

I like it!

Pours a clear orange color with a meager just off-white, thin head. Spotty lacing in the glass. Nose is of sweet malts and not much else. Slightly fruity. Palate is the same - caramel malts and a guava-like fruitiness. Not much in the hop delivery. Mediocre at best. Mouthfeel is medium and there is ample carbonation here. Really, this one just fails the taste test in my book. This is much more like an amber ale than an APA. It's a little bland and boring.

Beer pours orangish with a nice thin white head that stays throughout the beer; a good looking pale ale.
Heavy pine scent with light lemon notes, so it looks good and smells good.
Unfortunately, it doesn't taste that great. The notes so heavy in the scent fail to carry over as this beer has a bland taste and mouthfeel. Not very assertive, dry and bitter like a pale ale should be.
Definitely not the worst beer of this style, but it still leaves much to be desired. Don't turn down a pint of two from a friend, but even a well-known choice like Sierra Nevada would be a better pick.

Waimea Bay Pale Ale pours a hazy yellow-orange with a thin white cap for a head.

The aroma is a combination of pine and citrus. Taste is similar with the pine flavor overriding the citrus.

Mouthfeel is pretty good for the style. Full, but not too much so.

Drinkability is average on this beer. A couple could be easily enjoyed at a sitting. It is well suited to the tropical Hawaiian climate. Give it a try.

Pours a dull copper, not much retention bud decent spidered lacing. Mild carbonation.

Its "hoppy", but the makeup is unrefined and raw tasting to me, which gives it a bigger impact although less pleasing. Sweet grain, watered a bit. Lingering mash like finish. Even an alcohol flash towards the end to seal the deal. The overall theme is harsh, raw and unrefined.

Notes: Unfortunately Hawaii hasn't produced a good bottled beer that has made it to my gullet. I'm sure they have good beer there somewhere, maybe a trip in search of the best is in order?

Bold, brassy orange with a sprinkling of fine particulates. The three finger head is orange-tinted bone white in color, is decently creamy and hangs around for a good bit. It doesn't exactly 'hang ten', but it 'hangs five' with no trouble at all. Sudsy, abstract-patterned lace adorns the upper reaches of the glass.

The nose tells me that there will be some semblance of toasted maltiness on the palate. The hop scent is interesting; the beer smells at least as musky and as buttery as it does citric hoppy. It isn't a bad aroma, but I'm not sure how thrilled I'll be if it tastes like it smells.

It does taste like it smells--more or less--and I'm okay with that. Not my favorite take on the pale ale style, but a drinkable one. As expected (the nose usually knows), there's a slight toastedness to the pale malt flavor. The hoppy side of the ledger ain't all that hoppy. Still musky and marginally citric fruity, the hop bill wasn't an afterthought, but neither does the beer taste like it has a 'hop focus' as all good APAs should have.

I didn't pick up on it with my first few sips, but there's a mildly off-putting aspect to the flavor profile that can only be described as perfumed soap. It isn't apparent while the beer is in contact with the tastebuds, but is definitely noticeable between sips. I can't believe it was intentional, but maybe the brewers were going for a tropical flower, hibiscus-like vibe. If so, not a good idea. Thankfully, it's mild enough that it doesn't ruin the beer.

The body/mouthfeel is pretty standard APA fare. Light-medium in heft with an agreeable amount of carbonation, it really does nothing to either stand out or to stand in the way of my enjoyment; such as it is.

Waimea Bay Pale Ale is certainly a distinctive version of the style, though I'm still on the fence about how good it really is. The flowery, perfumy flavor was tolerable over the course of one bottle, but I have no desire to seek out another. In a showdown between Hawaii's most popular APAs, Kona's Fire Rock Pale Ale is the clear winner.

Poured a golden-orange color. Small but fluffy white head. Lots of carbonation can be seen rising. Small bubbles aplenty.

The smell was hard to pick up. Definitely sweet with some slight hops. A faint "soapy" smell.

The taste was very disappointing. Bitter throughout [OK] but somewhat "off" tasting. The strange taste was there from beginning to end. Somewhat of a cleaning fluid type taste [not that I've drank any].

Mouthfeel was medium and cleansing. Overall, not a beer I desire to have again. Did not seem to fit the style. Quite dissappointing.

Pours a pale gold with a smallish white head, tight carbonation.

Faint hop aroma.

Lighter malt character and pretty one dimensional grain leads into a very late coming and long holding bitterness on the palate. Quite interesting and enjoyable. Slightly out of balance though.

Medium bodied, lower on carbonation it seemed.

Not a bad pale at all, I was surprised at the hop presence. Needs a tiny bit more malt to hold on to.

Pours a hazy orange-amber color with a short and creamy white head. Nose is sweet and bready (almost like a freshly baked cake). Taste is the same sweet cake-like breadiness though there are some additional notes of nutty yeasts and grassy hops towards the end. An easy drinking brew. Even though it does seem a bit off for the style, it’s still quite enjoyable.

This beautiful amber-colored pale ale offers a fully-flavored grainy maltiness that's sweetish with notes of caramel, and backed by a solid bitterness. It's dextrinous, medium-body is offset by a lightly zesty and crisp carbonation; much in the same way that its maltiness is opposed by its bitterness. There aren't many hops in the flavor and aroma, however. In fact, the nose is almost barren of hops. There are some grassy/piney/spicy hops in the flavor, though, and they help to take the sweetish edge off of its firm maltiness. It's very nicely balanced, in fact, and makes for a very drinkable, satisfying ale. Still, I have to say that it's much more of a relaxing at sunset beer, than it is a noon-time quaff. Try their lager for that! Well done and enjoyable.... recommended!

The hops bite back with this Hawaiian offering!

Entry is quiet with a slightly sweet malt-influenced midtaste. Finish is hoppy, but in an apple-cider vinegar kinda way. The body is copper sporting an off-white collar of foam. Mouthfeel runs on the thin side.

Sampled on draught at the Goat Hill Tavern.

Glowing and hazed orange-amber appearance. Thin white head. Lacing is adequate. Sweet and bready aroma. I personally get little hop contributions on the nose. This beer tastes all right, just not like a Pale Ale. Hardly any hop contributions are noted on the palate. It's a sweet melange of bread pudding, cookie dough and rum cake. Interesting and really not all that bad.

Thanks for the reminding me of Hawaii in the dead of this Minnesotan Winter LBBum.

My first beer from Hawaii. It went perfect with the burrito I had at Wahoo's Fish Tacos in La Jolla, CA. Taste was very smooth, a little hoppy and a little sweet, nothing overpowering. Had the smell of faint sweet malt and slight hops. Very easy to drink and the bottle looked great (if only they let me keep it).