Paste Magazine, Best Pale ale blind test

Just getting into the top 1/5th is not a metric that I would personally associate with the word "great" but I suppose we all have differing perspectives here?

Cheers!

 

Florida Sue is not even close. Pretty sure that deal is dead also. Decorah is producing all the PseudoSue now. At least from what I've seen in distro we get in Central IL.

 

I did write "evidence" not "proof." I've had Lights On and would rank it differently than Paste did, but I wasn't a part of this tasting and haven't had all 151 beers so I won't knock their assessment. I think some of the beers in the unranked list are "great" too, so it's all down to personal opinion.

 

I wonder how the Saranac Pale would rank when adding scoring criteria for value. I know a 12 pack runs around $13 at Price Chopper. When compared to $5 or $6 a bottle for MBC it makes it even more impressive. I know what I'm buying next!

 

I can agree with you here.

It would be interesting to hear your thoughts concerning Lights On if somebody handed to you blind (no labels and all you knew was the beer was a Pale Ale).

Cheers!

 

Cape May Always Ready won Best Pale Ale at the Atlantic City Beer Fest, not sure if you have tried that beer yet but it's certainly delicious! "The Inescapable Worldliness of Mankind" by Ludlam Island and "HopPun" from Carton Brewing definitely would deserve consideration. All 3 are fantastic beers!

 

I've had "Lights On" next to a few of their other beers, and I don't recall it being their best offering.

I'm not one to call a brewery the best in the world because of their ratings, and I'm far from a Tree House fan boy. But their IPAs did land at the #3 and #12 spots on Paste's blind tasting of a whopping 247 different beers.

#3 was Jjjjulliuusss, which is also the #2 rated IPA here on Beeradvocate. It has a 4.68 rating, while Lights On has a 4.35. They don't make many pale ales, and those that they make aren't highly rated, relatively speaking. That's Trillium's forte.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/artic...t-american-ipas-blind-tasted-and-ran.html?a=1

 

And Hidden Sands' Pilsner and Pale Ale both deserve recognition, I will definitely continue to push/recommend their beers to anyone in South Jersey! Cheers!

 

Bingo! We have a winner here!!

Cheers!

@brianhink @JValm

 

Honestly any other brewery who placed top 50 in a style they don't specialize in would be praised. Tree House seems to get some unwarranted criticism on this site without a doubt.

 

We shall anoint you the Jersey Shore Beer Ambassador.

Cheers to you!!

 

Well, just to be clear here: I am not criticizing Tree House.

Cheers!

 

As honorary titles with no pay go, this is a great one. Cheers!

 

Halleck Pale Ale from Chestnut Brewing in Morgantown WV is some good stuff. It's one of those under the radar beers because it's brewed in WV, but I'd put it up there against Zombie Dust.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31542/98718/?ba=themanilow

 

I'm aware of the hype surrounding Tree House, Trillium, et al, but don't feel particularly susceptible to it. That's not the same as a blind tasting, but I think my biases around the Tree House brand are in check. Hell, I live where #5 is brewed and have a 6pk of #16 in my fridge, so if the rankings are significant I have even less incentive to laud a beer I'd have to trade to acquire.

 

Noted, the person you quoted sure seemed to be. I was just tackling the misguided attacks generally!

 

Most people do not think they are personally susceptible to hype. It is the other people who succumb to hype.

Cheers!

 

FYI, Whirlpool was submitted...it just didn’t crack the top 50.

 

It appears Zombie Dust didn't fare too well in their previous pale ale tasting in 2016, with 83 entries.

#25 on that list.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/artic...-american-pale-ales-blind-tasted-and.html?a=1

And Whirlpool was only #34. Of course, it's only a 4.5% pale ale, so that's a bit unfair being compared to some that are 6%+.

 

I would expect Treehouse would be able to "specialize" in pale ales considering how highly touted their IPAs/double IPAs are.

Ah, thanks. Missed that.

The bigger miss is not having Fort Point Pale Ale on this list. Considering Fort Point, and its variants, make up 4 out of the top 10 spots here on Beeradvocate in the pale ale category. And they've been highly touted for quite some time.

It would be interesting to see how they stack up in a blind tasting.