BJs Big Fish

Brewed by BJs Restaurant & Brewhouse
Style: American Pale Ale
, USA

Medium gold appearance with a rather clean, citrusy hoppy nose. Palate offers a big ruby red grapefruit character with citrus sweetness and the grapefruit bitterness coming through. Malt profile has a nice candied quality, and there’s an herbal presence as well. Quite bitter on the finish. Very drinkable.

On tap at Papago in Phoenix, 11-12-07. Beautiful tarnished copper color with nice head. Aroma is nice citrus, perhaps Simcoe hops? Great balance of hops and malt with nothing really taking the stage. Very, very good beer! This is listed as an American Strong Ale at Papago.

Fresh from the tap at Papago, it pours a clear golden amber color with a substantial creamy white head, upon its depletion; the lacing provides a nice curtain to drape the glass. Nose is rich in malt, a delectable hop floral aroma backs it up, citrus like in its crispness, stat is sweet malt at the start with a real hop spiciness at the back, top is light to medium in feel. Finish continues the spicy hop bitterness, the acidity sturdy, with a sweet and dry aftertaste, a real pleasant drinking beer.

On tap @ the Tucson Beer Festival - Pours a golden color with a very slight haze. Nice white head. Aroma is a wide range of citrus. Flavor is mostly the citrus hops with just enough malt to make it sweet. Medium body. This was a good one.

Draught @ Papago: Pours to a amber/copper colored body with a large white frothy head that is somewhat well-retained. The aroma shows grapefruit, pine, citrus, and some hints of pale malt. The taste shows plenty of bitter hops, but it’s got more malt, light cereal, and slight hints of diacetyl showing. Plenty of grapefruit hops, though it almost seems to me like there’s some darker malts, or perhaps underhoping, that take away from the overall hoping. I realize it’s not supposed to be all hops, thus it’s not bad...but a little more in the flavor or aroma wouldn’t hurt. Medium bodied, medium carbonated.

Drought @ Papago. A bold grapefruit aroma on the nose. Dark copper body with good head. Flavor was a good dose of grapefruit with a touch of bitterness. This one was cool and crisp on the palate and good. This fish had eluded me before but finally caught it.

Brewed by BJ’s Chandler, AZ
Sampled in a smoky bar atmosphere. The beer has a frothy, one-finger thick, dirty tan colored head. The beer itself is a brilliantly clear, reddish hued, dark copper highlighted color. There is a pine-like, citrusy aroma that cuts through the smoke in the bar; I get notes of grapefruit, tangerine and a certain note that is sharp and a bit spicy.

Somehow this beer is light and quaffable, despite the full flavor and reasonable heft to the body. The ample hops seem to drown out a caramelized alt sweetness that is just hinted at. Grapefruit is definitely the dominant hop derived flavor here. There is also a bit of spiciness here, which seems to be a combination of the carbonation and a biting hop character. There is a solid hop bitterness in this beer that is evident from start to finish. This is not nearly as strong as I was expecting, but the title strong APA definitely fits this beer, as it is definitely not an double IPA. It is still quaffable, but has lots of hop character, in fact there is even a bit of raw hoppiness here, which is evident b/c this beer has a certain lightness to it.

<font size=-4>Sampled on tap at: <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Place/arizona/scottsd Brewing Co, Scottsdale, AZ<font size=-1>

On draft @ Jantzen Beach - A pleasing little pale ale. Nice balanced hop components and a very sbutle could have been bigger malt backbone. This was very smooth and crisp with a little bit of soapiness in the finish. I would order this again.