What are your top five pale ales?

1. Blue Lobster Gold Claw (for now...)
2. Hill Farmstead What is Enlightenment?
3. Maine Beer Co. MO
4. Hill Farmstead Edward
5. Tree House Tornado

Excuse my New England bias. Maybe trying something like Zombie Dust or Daisy Cutter would change my answers.

 

my list is, of course, based on what I can get or have gotten thanks to trades

in no order:
1) Terrapin Rye Pale Ale
2) Dale's Pale Ale
3) FFF Alpha King
4) Deschutes Mirror Pond
5) Half Acre Daisy Cutter

never had Zombie Dust

 

According to my ratings:
Blue Lobster Gold Claw
Treehouse Tornado
OB Dales Pale Ale
Lagunitas New Dogtown
Smutty Shaols Pale

 

1) pseudoSue
2) Edward
3) zombie dust
4) daisy cutter
5) MO

 

sierra nevada
omnipollo
maine peeper
victory headwaters
nothing else is coming to mind

 

Deschutes Hop Trip
Half Acre Daisy Cutter
Three Floyds Alpha King
Two Brothers Sidekick
Alesmith X Pale Ale

ZD is an IPA to me, but if you consider it an APA then that's near the top. Hop Trip was absolutely phenomenal though, and it's probably my favorite APA that I've ever had. Even better than ZD. And SN Pale Ale, as a timeless classic, gets an honorable mention.

 

Kona Firerock
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Deschuttes Mirror Pond
GI Honkers Ale
Boulevard Pale Ale
Schlafly Pale Ale

Guess that makes six, but that seems to be my regular pale ale rotation.

 

Grateful Pale by Starr Hill
Dales
Doggie Style by Flying Dog
Ray-Ray by Center of the Universe
Full Nelson VA Pale Ale

 

Deschutes Red Chair
Deschutes Hop Trip
Three Floyds Zombie Dust
Odell St Lupulin
Backcountry Pale Ale

 

What is Enlightenment
Edward
MO
Peeper
Zombie Dust (if we're going by what this is called rather than what it actually is)

 

peekskill's amazeballs best I've had.
maine's mo
HF edward
blue lobster gold claw.
tree house tornado.

 

That's a solid list. Never had Mirror Pond, but the other 4 are on my top 5!

 

Whatever the last 5 pale ales I got at Tired Hands and Hill Farmstead are. Their pale ales are so much better than everyone else's, it's not even fair.

Standouts are HF Nelson, and plain old HopHands from TH. Nelson especially, as Nelson Sauvin hops have been something of a revelation as far as hoppy beers go.

 

I'll stick with American Pale Ales-
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Anchor Liberty Ale
Deschutes Mirror Pond
Victory Headwaters
Sun King Osiris

 

In order:
TG - pseudoSue
FFF - Zombie Dust
New Glarus - Moon Man
Indeed - Day Tripper
Deschutes - Red Chair

Honorable mentions: (Lagunitas - New Dogtown, Odd Side - Citra, Odell - St. Lupulin)

 

FFF - Alpha King
FFF - Zombie Dust
Stone - Pale Ale
Blue Mountain Brewery - Full Nelson
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

 

SNPA comes to mind first.
Great Lakes Burning River is one of my favorites, I didn't see mentioned yet.
The terrapin rye mention surprised me, had it last Sept when out of town, thought it had no taste at all, totally flavorless

 

Sticking to the American variety and going by the BA classification just to make things easy. In order:

1. 3Floyds Zombie Dust (4.50)
2. Crooked Stave Hop Savant (4.46)
3. Fremont Cowiche Canyon Fresh Hop (4.29)
4. Green Flash Citra Session (4.23)
5. Carton Brewing Boat Beer (4.11)

And since three of those skirt the line between styles (ZD and GF Citra could be IPAs and Hop Savant has a very "Belgian" pale ale feel to it), here are three more honorable mention that could take their place if we wanted to get restrictive about fitting within the APA style:

1. Deschutes Red Chair
2. Odell St. Lupulin
3. FW Pale 31

All that being said, I would never turn down a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

 

since that was me, I'll comment. now I haven't had it in roughly 1 year - I never see it on shelves in NJ anymore - it's definitely NOT flavorless. I mean think about it, rye is probably THE most flavorful type of grain. not sure if you had it in bottle or on tap, but perhaps it was bad/old/served improperly?

 

SNPA
FW Pale 31
Drakes 1500 Pale Ale
Almanac Extra Pale Ale
Knee Deep Citra Pale Ale

 

sierra nevada
alpha king (love zombie dust too, just too hard to call a pale ale for me personally)
sam smiths organic pale
fullers london pride
half acre daisy cutter

 

1. HF Edward
2. Trillium Fort Point Pale Ale
3. Bells Two Hearted
4. Treehouse Tornado
5. Prohibition Pig Pale Ale

 

5 bottles of Zombie Dust

 

Picked up a 6 pack,served bottle to glass. Not sure of the age, was expecting something like ruthless rye, got nothing. Only time I ever had it. Guess I need to revisit, supposed to start distro my way (WV) next month

 

1. Oskar Blues - Dales Pale Ale
2. Victory - Headwaters Pale Ale
3. Horseheads- Pale Expedition Ale
4. Troegs - Pale Ale
5. Southern Tier - Live

 

My top 5:

1. PseudoSue
2. Edward
3. The Light That Spills Out Of The Hole In Your Head
4. Zombie Dust
5. Moon Man

 

1. PseudoSue
2-5. Toppling Goliath Xhops - Yellow, Blue, Green, Red

Honorable mentions: Moon Man, Zombie Dust, SNPA

I like TG

 

1 Zombie Dust
2 Alpha King
3 MO
4 SideKick
5 Founders Dry Hopped Pale

 

According to my ratings:

1. HF Edward
2. FFF Zombie Dust
3. MBC Peeper
4. Victory Headwaters
5. SNPA

That little exercise made me thirsty.

 

Amazeballs- Peekskill
Galaxy- New England Brewing Company
Live- Southern Tier
Headwaters Pale Ale- Victory
Citra- Hill Farmstead

Honorable mentions:
Edward- Hill Farmstead
Frank- Community Beer Works
Super Fuzz- Elysian
SNPA

 

- New Dogtown
- Zombie Dust
- Sierra Nevada
- Denver Pale Ale
- GL Burning River

 

1. Mirror Pond
2. Two Hearted
3. Mo
4. Red Chair
5. Troegs

 

No particular order:
Zombie Dust, Alpha King, Red Chair, MO, Edward

 

Row2 / Hill 56
Happy Hops - Simcoe
Zombie Dust
Faction Pale Ale
New Dogtown Pale & Drakes 1500 neck and neck for my #5 spot

 

I don't want to seem like I am riding a hype train . But I have only tried five pale ales so here they are. All are good though.

No particular order.
1. Alpha King
2. Zombie Dust
3. Pride and Joy
4. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
5. Gumball Head (classified as American pale wheat ale).

 

1) Beer Hates Astronauts (Half Acre)
2) Sculpin
3) Alpha King
4) Union Jack (Firestone Walker)
5) Daisy Cutter, Zombie Dust or Mr. Goroboros (can't decide)

I generally drink DIPAs, so my list of IPAs/APAs isn't as comprehensive as it could be.

 

(Not in order)
Edward
MO
Founders All Day (can't believe no one else has said this).
Zombie Dust
Ace Hole

I really need to try this "amazeballs" stuff...

 

Deschutes Mirror Pond