Posts Tagged ‘Pale Ale’

Brennan’s Pub
173 High St
Holyoke, MA 01040

We decided to essentially start at the bottom of I-91 on the Yankee Brew News beer map. That meant Holyoke, MA. Specifically, we were headed for Paper City Brewing. Unfortunately – due to the spontaneous nature of this road trip – we did not do proper research into when the brewery would be open or even really where it was in town. (Well – we did have a street address.) Our journey took us into the High Street area of Holyoke. My mother always said if you do not have something nice to say – say nothing at all.

“Ahem…Nothing at all.”

Look – I know many urban breweries are pioneers. They spring up in industrial areas and often lead to a renaissance. I pray Paper City does this for Holyoke because there are some serious dodgy areas in route to the brewery – and I used to live in downtown Detroit. Sadly, we could not determine if the brewery was actually open – we arrived around noon – so we decided to bail and try to find a bit of food and drink.

Once again…“Nothing at all.” I mean REALLY?!?! Aren’t there a couple of colleges around this town? I know the economy has hit everyone hard, but DAMN! This was not a great start to our road trip.

Then – after turning back on to High St. to head for our car and get the hell out of Holyoke – we spotted Brennan’s Pub. While I found the Bud logos next to the clovers on an Irish pub sign a bit off-putting, I was encouraged by the Sierra Nevada and Guinness neon. At this point, we were more than hungry, thirsty and frazzled so we gave it a shot.

We are certainly glad we did. This is one of those great local Irish pubs where the folks are friendly, the pints are proper and the walls are filled with a variety of photos, beer mirrors, neon and ephemera. The menu is of the solid pub grub/sandwiches variety. The televisons were playing an array of sports and CNN coverage. We decided we couldn’t possibly do better from what we had seen of Holyoke.

We settled in and ordered opur first beer of the trip: Berkshire Brewing Steel Rail. It’s a clean crisp extra pale ale with a nice slightly barley malt edge and good hoppiness. Running 5.3% ABV, it’s a great bar session beer and went well with our lunch. Brennan’s served it in 14 oz. pints very cold. We would discover through the course of the road trip almost every bar had Steel Rail on tap. It became the fall back if look for a simple light bodied beer.

As for the food, I had a Mexsteak sandwich. Essentially a kicked up cheesesteak with big fresh jalapenos and a nicely spicy chipotle sauce. Mrs. Ohabeer had some sort of wrap with a ton of sour cream, but I was enjoying the Mexsteak too much to care about her lunch. Oh yes – and the lunch with curly fries only cost $5. Gotta love a good pub grub bargain!

We decided to have a second round after lunch choosing to try the two Wachusett beers they had in bottles. The Wachusett Blueberry Ale was a simple pale ale with a subtle blueberry scent but not much in the way of blueberry flavor. Mrs. Ohabeer thought is was ok, but not really all that impressive. We also got a bottle of the Wachusett Green Monsta Ale. This is a nice big pale ale with a bunch of hops. As is usually the case, Mres. Ohabeer thought it too hoppy. I thought it was quite nice. Not really a hop bomb, but definitely hoppier than your usual pale. A nice flowery scent with a good malt balance. I could easily see this as a favorite session if available anywhere near me.

While at Brennan’s, we discovered Paper City does a Friday evening open house/tasting starting at 6pm. Unfortunately it was only 2pm and really we could not take hanging out in Holyoke for another 4 hours. So with the Wachusetts finished, we paid the bill – thanked the bartender – and headed out for far greener and hopefully more fruitful pastures.

We now know if heading into Holyoke on a Friday, get there around 3pm. Head over to Brennan’s for a bit of afternoon snack and beer. Then drive – do not walk – over to Paper City for their Friday night open house.

Beers Sampled: 3
Towns visited: 1
Breweries visited: 1
Breweries open: 0

Up next: We’re off to Northampton as soon as we point the car in the right direction.

Brewery: Boulder Beer
Location: Boulder, CO
Style: American Pale Ale

Time to make a return to my current spring/summer project: Embrace The Hops.

Quick recap…up until recently I had quite an aversion to strong hop beers. My preference ran in the stout/dark ale realm so I have made the commitment to buy at least one big hop brew on every beer run until the winter.

This time around, I went for a beer I’ve been eyeing for a while and just never got around to buying: Boulder Beer Hazed & Infused Dry-hopped Ale. I wish it had not taken me so long to finally get to this. This has quickly become one of my favorite summer session beers – though sadly not readily available at my local gas station. Having this in the cellar means a bit of a trip and some stocking up.

It is a beautiful amber colored ale that is strangely very clear for being unfiltered. A good pale yellow head falls fairly quickly but that;s not really a big issue. There is a huge hop aroma with the slightest edge of maltiness. The taste is solid hops – but not a dry your mouth to the point of arid. Just a big punch of flowery and citrusy hops (Crystal and Centennial according to the bottle) with enough malt underneath to keep this nicely balanced and out of the hop bomb territory. The flower/citrus aftertaste builds over the course of a glass making the hop taste strong the longer you drink.

Medium bodied and quite refreshing – at 4.85 % ABV it might be a bit on the high side of a session – though not for the usual craft drinker. A great afternoon on the deck in summer drink. My only regret was not stocking more when I had the chance. I plan to correct that this weekend.

Brewery: Widmer Brewing
Location: Portland, OR
Style: Pale ale

The Favorite Sessions series continues with the Widmer Drifter Pale Ale. I had been hearing good things about Widmer on Teh Internets so when I ran into a couple of 6 packs during grocery shopping, I decided to pick them up. I got this pale ale as well as the Widmer Drop Top Amber (review coming soon). Of the two, this was definitely the winner. Both are solid ales, but if I’m looking for something with a bit of flavor punch but with (a slight above) session level ABV – this is my new beer.

Pours a lovely amber gold with a medium foamy white head. The head disappears fairly quickly, but I find that to be the case with a lot of sessions, There is a nicely balanced hop/malt scent with citrusy hops as dominant aroma. This is a medium bodied ale – not too dry or hop bomby. It’s mostly a citrus hop taste making it much less bitter than a lot of pale ales. You get a touch of bitterness in the after taste but not the kind of whollop many pale ales bring to the table. The slightly sweet malt undertone helps keep this under control and keep it in a nice simple session ale realm. OK – technically the 5.7% ABV puts this slightly out of true session territory, but for those who prefer their beer to be craft vs. BMC, a 5.7% beer is actually a session brew.

It’s a perfectly balanced simple ale for a summer night when you want something with flavor and a slight kick, but do not feel the need to be challenged or extreme. An absolutely perfect deck/BBQ beer,

I haven’t really done much of a restock lately to the cellar. We’ve been a bit too busy around OAB HQ drinking various foamybeers – our own line of brews. A recent trip to pick up more brewing supplies lead us to drop by Oliver’s discount Beverage in Albany. so, the latest beerventory…

Growlers
Cave Mountain Hefeweizen (bought at the brewery on $8 browler Sundays)

6 packs
Widmer Drop Top Amber Ale
Widmer Drifter Pale Ale
Saranac Summer Brew
Wolaver Ben Gleason’s White Ale
Sherwood forest Friar’s Belgian White ale
Boulder Brewing Hazed & Infused
Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA

12 Pack
Smutty Nose Sampler featuring Shoals Pale Ale, Old Brown Dog, IPA and Robust Porter

Bombers
Long Trail Brewmasters Series Double IPA
Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere
Jolly Pumpkin La Roja Amber Ale
Arcadia Ales Cocoa Loco
Arcadia Ales Cereal Killer
Southern Tier Jah-Va Imperial Coffee Stout
Southern Tier Iniquity Black Ale
Smuttynose Really Old Brown Dog Ale
Smuttynose Gravitation Belgian Quad
Ommegang Biere de Mars
He’Brew Jewbelation 12
Elysian Bifrost Winter Ale
Flying Dog Wild Dog Weizenbock

Brewery: Saranac Brewing
Location: Utica, NY
Style: Ale

Saranac is a staple of upstate grocery and convenience stores. If there are no other crafts to be found in a store, one can almost always expect to find some Saranac in this neck of the NY woods. I’ve been drawn to their 12 packs since moving upstate as I consider them simple beers for when you just want something refreshing. Saranac makes solid beers – nothing amazing but definitely worth drinking.

The “What Ales You?” is a seasonal 12 featuring 2 beers each of 6 ales. Why exactly they chose to waste one of those beers on the minorly disappointing Saranac Stout is beyond me. Unless – like I do – Saranac doesn’t actually consider it a stout but more a dark ale. In any case, I would rather have had another ale choice.

The other five selections carry on the simple beer tradition I’ve come to expect from Saranac. All are fine beers that are easy to drink. Sure, nothing here will shake the beer world to its very core – but sometimes that’s a good thing. Sometimes – you just want a cold beer.

Saranac Pomegranate Wheat
As has been stated in the past, Mrs. Ohabeer is quite the fruit beer fan. She started out drinking Lambics, moved to ciders and finally broke through the beer barrier with Sam Adams Cherry Wheat and Saranac Pomegranate Wheat. What I like about the Saranac is the subtleness of the fruit. This is not a massively fruited beer. Just enough Pom juice – and it actually tastes like real juice not extract – adds a tartness to a simple wheat. Fairly light body and low alcohol (4.7% ABV) makes this an excellent deck beer.

Saranac Brown Ale
My first homebrewed beer was a brown ale. I chose that because it was a simple all extract beer, easy to make and a good way to get started in brewing. Thing is – I do not really like brown ales that much. They generally fall into a darkish beer without much of an opinion category. Saranac’s Brown Ale is pretty much like all other brown ales I’ve had. A tad thinnish with not much in the way of a discernible flavor. It certainly has maltiness – but without any sort of malt complexity. It is – however – a great cooking beer.

Saranac Irish Red Ale
This is the newest in the Saranac line and the only beer in the set I have not had previously. The color is a beautiful deep red and there is a slight head. Very nice malty aroma. While Saranac asserts “caramel and toffee notes”, I just get a solid malty sweetness. Again, a solid drinkable medium body ale. The 6% ABV gives is a bit of a nice edge but nothing an experienced brew fan will find daunting.

Saranac Pale Ale
This is a core Saranac beer and one you’re most likely to find in 6 packs at the local store. Great copper colored ale with a quick falling foamy head. The taste nicely balances a fruity hoppiness with a sweet maltiness. Light on the body side of things, it is extremely drinkable and a perfect hot day refreshment. 5.5% ABV keeps this low enough to enjoy a couple.

Saranac India Pale Ale
Finally, we head back toward the my 2009 Hopfest with Saranac’s hopped up version of their Pale Ale. By “hopped up” here I mean noticeable hops – not a massive hop bomb. As I’ve said – Saranac is not about extreme beers, just good simple beer. This India Pale Ale has a crisp light gold color with an pale white head. It gives off a decent hop scent. The taste is definitely a hopped up Pale Ale but still very balanced and nothing extreme. A good refreshing ale with an extra zip.

Brewery: Southern Tier
Location: Lakewood, NY
Style: Pale Ale

In my continuing quest to embrace the hops, I picked up a six of Southern Tier Phin & Matt’s Extraordinary Ale. It’s a decision I’m glad I made but that Mrs. Ohabeer wasn’t keen about (she is NOT a hop fan).

This pours a beautiful clear gold color with a bright white head. While the head falls pretty quickly, the beer itself has a nice amount of carbonation. The aroma is a blend of big flowery hops and sweet malt. As is often the case with a well made brew, the taste matches the aroma. Perfect balance of sweet malt with a big hop punch. It is a bit on the dry side, but that does not reduce the drinkability. A fairly low alcohol – 5.6% ABV – keeps this in the “have a couple” category.

Smooth and refreshing with a perfect sweet to bitter balance, I see this beer easily showing up on the deck this summer while grilling.