Drakes Batch 1500 Pale Ale

Brewed by Drakes Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
San Leandro, California USA

(on-tap @ Cato’s) pint is a gorgeous bright-glowing amber with a slight head that sticks around as a heavy collar and and laces well. nose is pure clean hop juice - wonderful tangerine-like citrus notes mixed with pure northwest pine needles. flavor is again hops first, but the malt underpinning is quite pleasantly grainy, with a clean, lightly toasted charecter. the hop flavor is clear and well defined. alcohol is not apparent. very nice, clean, balanced beer - a very satisfying IPA (yeah yeah, I know they call it an APA).

4 ounce sample on tap at the Raley Field Brewfest. Wonderful aromatic hempy, catty hoppy simcoe nose. Some orange citrus notes are present. Me oh my, I do like myself some simcoe. Wonderfully quaffable. Transparent orange body with an off-white head. Starts with an onslaught of simcoe hops. Catty, hempy goodness. Becomes sticky and chewy with perhaps some caramel in the body. Finishes with more hops with some moderate spiciness followed by more catty flavors late. One dimensional, but that dimension is damn fine.

Six pack from Holiday Wine. This beer is great. More than regular IPAs, I can really taste a US pale ale underneath the late hops. So for me, it is a Pale Ale that just happens to have major things hoppening, rather than a beer with a large hop profile fully integrated. I can taste the mineral, watery more malty character of the base beer and the contrast is well done. The late hops are dry and almost vaporous. Finish is like a peachflower. Unreal. Such good work.

Huge aroma of tangerine - methinks some amarillo run afoot. Light amber in color and a decent white head. Some sweet caramel malt is in play and holding hands with tangy and omnipresent lemon and orange hops. Incredible balance here and extremely quaffable. A top-shelf pale ale. Kudos to Rodger.

Nice sunset color, light head. Wonderful hoppy aroma with grapefruit, buds, light roast and doughy malts. The malt profile is very reminiscent of the IPA but the hops are very different. Nice balanced malt flavor, toeing the dry/sweet line well, with plenty of toasty malts evident. I might have a new go-to beer here. Fantastic.

Beer 45. Very cloudy but a very hoppy aroma. Taste is almost more like an IPA or a doulbe than an APA, so well done for only 5.5%. Almost too much - I can’t believe I said that.

GABF 2006. My man Rodger does it again. This guy knows how to brew hoppy beers and this is yet another example. As Rodger said, 1/2 the Denoggonizer. Huge clean, crisp, fresh hop aroma. A great beer when you want hops but don’t want to over do it w/ a high alcohol double IPA.

Clear, amber with white head. Big hop-forward aromas with some fruity malty-sweet notes coming through. Medium-light body with hints of crystal malts but predominantly tasting of big, bitter hops. A deliciously drinkable Pale Ale that would have been considered an IPA just a few years ago. This brew varies, but each batch is delicious.