100 Barrel Series #59 - EHOP 2016
Harpoon Brewery & Beer Hall

 

5/25/17...pours light golden color, bordering on dark with thin layer of white foam. Subtle tropical aroma, hints of oatmeal. Light bitter malty taste, the oats are really present and powerful. Bready. Creamy, Bitter finish. Quite good, and really creative oatmeal based beer.

 

A: Pours a golden yellow color with 2 fingers of head that fades down to a nice fluffy cap that leaves some good lacing

S: Citrusy and earthy hops up front with a nice malty background. A little on the pithy side

T: Follows the nose. Some citrus and earthiness from the hops up front followed by a light malt sweetness. Light-moderate bitterness throughout. Finishes with lingering earthy tones and a light fruitiness

M: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. On the softer side thanks to the oats/oatmeal

O: A nice pale ale that is very easy to drink. Great balance between hops and malt and the oats make it pop a bit. Solid collab and one-off

From the 650 ml. bottle with a Best By date of 12/15/17. From the collaboration with Odell Brewing. Sampled on January 22, 2017.

The pour is a slight hazy pale yellow-olive tone with a quick lasting fizzy head that fades to a ring.

My nose picks up mostly fruity and green hop aromas like orange, melon, grass, lemon, and herbs. Slight white bread character under that. Although I didn't get the promised oatmeal.

Medium body that feels more carbonated than the amount of head produced.

The taste echoes the aroma and brings out the tropical fruit, melon, orange, and herbal hop characters over the more subtle sweet white crusty bread characters. Mild to moderate bitter finish.

From the bottle, it pours golden with a nice head, reducing eventually to a thin layer. Lacing as you enjoy it. Pine just about overwhelms the nose! Taste is nice with hops and malt throughout. Feels nice as well - smooth and no bad aftertaste.

Bottle from Bert's
Slightly hazy light golden color with a decent sized long lasting white head. Light bready caramel toasty maltiness with plenty of earthy citrus and pine hop aroma and flavor to counter. Pretty tasty pale ale, and one of the best Harpoon beers I've had for a while!

100 barrel series session No. 59. Brewed alongside our friends at O'Dell brewing.

Poured almost 22 oz. In my Pilsner Urquell mug.

A hazy yellow-gold color. Substantial all-white foam cap hangs around awhile. Excellent rings of lace leftover.

The aroma has a very big, oatmeal, grainy, chalky scent, big citrus and tangy fruits from the hops, sweet and bold. Sweet, honey scented malt is pretty obvious as well.impressive nose.

The feel is amazingly smooth. A nice crips, medium body with a velvety, long, malty finish. The Oats provide a very smooth and soft feel. A crisp bite with a tangy, earthy, piney hop bite, becomes slightly bitter, but with a very smooth edge. A complex and excellent body/mouthfeel.

The flavor starts with some very complex hop flavor's, citrus (oranges) , bitter pine, sharp, tangy effect is interesting , with a light and sweet malt balance that gets pushed over the edge with the oatmeal addition, a subtle effect upon the flavor, but certainly there, with some minor earthy and grainy tones gives it a pretty nice complexity.

Overall, a very impressive Oatmeal Pale ale. I thouroughly enjoy the oatmea
Addition, especially in the feel. The hops are very complex and interesting, giving it an IPA senseability. One of the better 100 barrel efforts I've seen in a while. Love the fact that the oats come from King Arthur flower company out of VT and also company owned. Really a 3-way collaboration.

Saw Odell had a hand in this and had to pick it up even though I'm getting off bombers. "100 barrel series - session no. 59." "EHOP Oatmeal Pale Ale 2016 edition." Cost was $8.99.

BOTTLE: 22 fl oz. Brown glass. Vintage looking label design and blue/orange colour motif. Pry-off crown cap.

"6.6% ABV." "52 IBUs."

Served cold into a pilsner glass.

HEAD: A finger's worth of height. Kind of frothy, a bit creamy. Nice consistency overall, with a decent complexion. Retention is above average - ~3-4 minutes. Leaves light uneven lacing as it recedes.

BODY: Opaque clear copper of average vibrance. No yeast particulate/lees within. No chill haze.

It looks pretty basic for a pale ale. No overt faults. Nothing unique or special.

AROMA: Definitely a tropical hop profile, hitting passionfruit and papaya. Melon peel. Watermelon rind. Pale malts keep it balanced. I find no aroma from the oats, as is often the case.

Aromatic intensity is average.

Suggests an imbalanced (too bitter) brew with an uninteresting tropical hop profile. I can't say I'm eager to try it.

TASTE & TEXTURE: Yeah, it's exactly what the aroma suggested, replete with a rindy aggressive bitterness and warm tropical fruit flavours. Pale malts fail to balance it out adequately; the hops crush the malts in terms of bitterness fighting sweetness. Where it really surprises in terms of its subpar execution is in terms of mouthfeel; it's oddly dry and a bit coarse - the opposite of what one would expect in an oatmeal pale ale. Largely unrefreshing in spite of its light to medium body. Overcarbonated.

Not oily, gushed, hot, boozy, astringent, or harsh, but it is a little warm (especially for its scant 6.60% ABV) and a little rough.

Not a great build or an interesting hop profile. Average flavour duration and intensity.

OVERALL: A mediocre effort I'm inclined to pin on Harpoon; Odell rarely puts out beers this lackluster. Drinkable but dull and uninspired. It's even worse that it's offered in the cash-grab bomber format instead of more sensible 6 packs. A shrug of an attempt at the style from Harpoon...I guess I hoped for more given Odell was ostensibly involved.

Low C- (2.52) / BELOW AVERAGE