Barley Island Blind Tiger Pale Ale

Brewed by Barley Island Brewing
Style: American Pale Ale
Noblesville, Indiana USA

Draft sampler at Barley island. Hazy copper pour with a moderate creamy white head that diminished slowly and produced some lacing. Medium hoppy aroma. Medium body with a sticky texture. Average hoppy flavor with a moderate bitter finish of average duration.

An incredible, foamy, yellowhite head took a long time to settle over a chill-hazed, golden/copper body. Dusty, hopcit aroma with a strong overtone of plastic and rubber... like a vacu-form model car kit. Lively mouthfeel carries light grapefruit and resin atop a thin base of mineral water. When I burp it tastes like I’ve been blowing up latex balloons all day.

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Thin, fizzy, fast fading white head. Clear coppery amber body. Light, dried Centennial hop aroma, along with some flowers. Flavor is much the same… subdued, smoothed out hops with a light sweet malty backing. Not to interesting, but an okay average drinking beer.

Bottle: Orange color, with what I’ve come to expect as the standard Barley Island monster head. Kind of a dank citrusy aroma. Some citrusy flavors with a dry finish. Might be an old bottle, but I’m not getting any "pronounced" hop flavor.

Copper pour with enormous (and irritatingly long-lived) rocky head. Some floral hopping, but mainly citrusy notes to cut through the caramel/toffee base. Nicely done and yes, I agree, sessionable.

A mild but satisfying APA, orange/copper body, creamy off-white head, and a light citric hop aroma atop a soft caramel base. Good balance of the tastes, finishing on an easy bitter note. Session stuff here.

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A very nice bronze color, looks rich, with a nice collar of cream-colored foam. Lots of citrus in the aroma, grapefruit pith with some fruit and soft caramel behind. Flavor is quite nice. A solid, full-bodied, toasted caramel malt that does not show itself in the aroma, the citrus and grapefruit pith hop character, a little viscosity that is fleeting, and a smack of bitterness that complements nicely but is probably too strong and acidic for a pale ale.

(22 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with atpayne, thanks Adam!) Another massively overcarbonated bottle of beer that despite the careful pour has yielded more head than actual beer. Also, the nose is fairly soapy, which often seems to go hand-in-hand with the massive carbonation. Anyway, after several minutes, the foamy, light-tan has died down to only a quarter-inch, so I can finally proceed. Well, the flavor is also moderately soapy, but it’s mild enough that I can overlook it and focus on the other flavors. Mildly sweet, fruity, and lightly malty initially, the finish shows some mild but balancing bitterness, as well as a light smokiness. It tastes okay, I guess, certainly nothing special, but of course, that soapiness can’t be ignored either. Unfortunately, I can’t smell much beyond the soapiness, maybe some sweet fruitiness and some floral hops. Body is about medium, and despite the huge head, carbonation on the palate isn’t expansive at all. Dark amber in color and fairly cloudy with some small, dark specks settling to the bottom of the glass. The head never fades below a thin but complete layer, and there is a significant amount of foam left on the glass. Not a great introduction to this brewery, but I’m hopeful some of the others will be better.