Acme California Pale Ale

Brewed by North Coast Brewing Company
Style: American Pale Ale
Fort Bragg, California USA

Totally average. Light orange pour, little to no head. Good aroma, floral sent. Flavor is unimpressive, slightly flat.

12 oz. bottle. Body toward the lighter side of the style, lots of bubbles, and a decent, frothy head. Not a big hop nose to start, but a good malty smell with some bitterness. Taste shows it to be very sessionable. It’s more of a standard pale ale with American hops than an überhoppy Alpha King type. Mostly malts over a bed of decidedly piney Pacific hops. Interesting variation that won’t frighten the newbies away.

Botttled. Quite dark orange, small white head. Nose is flowery, malty. Flavor is pretty mild for an APA, not much bitterness. Malts. Some marzipan and citrus? Pretty mediocre and characterless APA and definately not a very memorable one. Disappnointment.

frothy head, pale color, strong taste that stays with you. there is hints of other tastes but it tends to get drowned out by the heavy malt.

Restrained pale ale. Pours a golden orange with light, white head. Some roasted malt flavor, some hops bitterness and notes of orange peel. It’s well balanced, but there is just not a lot of flavor. Maybe a little over carbinated. I was expecting more from North Coast.

Growler poures a light orange with a small white head. Aroma is light hops. From this point on things seem to go awry. The taste is somewhat flat and overall very disappointing. I was really expecting more.

12oz bottle with redhead trapeze chick on the label. Brassy straw color, nearly opaque with carbonation run amok. A solid ivory lather begins at an inch plus, and soon doubles in depth, suggesting a good percentage of flaked barley or wheat in the grist. Light toasty, citric, wheaty nose, not very exciting. The flavor is similar... weak toast with puffed wheat ceral and green appleskin. A fleeting tart/citric finish leads to a metallic aftertaste and an extremely long-lasting, moderately bitter (in respect to the beer’s wimpyness) ashtray bitterness. Creamy foam beefs up an otherwise light, sharp palate. Overall pretty bland; reminds me of Boddingtons, but hopped with Chinook I’m guessing. Not good... I expected so much more from North Coast. And 89 points from the BTI makes me wonder what makes them qualified to judge/rate anything other than mass-market pale lager.

12oz bottle. Overall, a pretty weak pale ale. A pale yellow pour with minimal head. A faint nose of citrus and musty hops. Light in body and a crisp finish.