Left Hand Jackmans Pale Ale

Brewed by Left Hand Brewing Co.
Style: American Pale Ale
Longmont, Colorado USA

Cloudy amber with a lasting hite head. Hoppy aroma of citrus, apricot and green tobacco, with a little caramel. Sweet and fruity flavour with a good hoppiness.

(bottle). Clear copper color. Small off white head. Hop aroma with light citrus. Strong hop flavor with light malt. Avg duration. Smooth finish with light bitterness. Slick texture. Moderate carbonation. Fair lacing.

Bottle. Pours a dark golden color with a small white head. Aroma is quite hoppy; flavor is as well. Slightly metallic aftertaste. Not bad.

Pours copper color with no head. Aroma of sweet malt. Taste of sweet malt- in fact thats all I taste is sweet & more sweet. I don’t know if my bottle was old where I got it from & the hops mellowed out because all I tasted was sweet.

Bottle sampled at the Left Hand tasting at Blacklick Wine & Spirits on 7/9/09. Clear copper pour with a medium off-white head. Crisp hop aroma with a caramel malt balance. Mostly malty flavor with a bit of grassy hops. Decent APA.

(bottle - 12 oz) Slightly hazy golden color with a fluffy white head. Aroma is slightly sweet with some citrus and floral notes. Flavor begins with a sweet and citrusy taste with a lightly malted middle balanced by some floral and peppery hops. Finishes with a light nutty flavor and a lingering hop bitterness.

Sampled June 2009
A vigorous pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a four-finger thick, pale tan colored head. The head falls pretty quickly, though never completely disappears, and doesn’t leave much in the way of lacing on the sides of my glass. The beer is a bright, rich copper hue that shows a brilliantly clear red tinged copper hue when held up to the light. The aroma smells of American hops and crystal malt; ruby-red grapefruit notes, tangerine, lychee and amped up oranges zest mix with a backdrop of toasty pale malt, and underlying caramelized crystal malt character, and perhaps a hint of nutty malt character. The aroma is exactly what I would expect from a hop focused Pale Ale.

This has a solid prickly carbonation that offsets a malty fullness of body pretty well. It is perhaps a touch too carbonated for my tastes (even after the vigorous pour), but some swirling of my glass releases the excess effervescence. The beer now has a nice medium light body that keeps this from being too light or watery, but still remains quite quaffable. Up front citrus hop notes lead toward a finish that gets a little herbal with some pine notes thrown in and a nice biting bitterness. Tangerine, a bit of lychee, some orange oil notes define the hop character up front. The malt plays a clearly supporting role in the flavor, it is even a bit less pronounced than it was in the nose; the malt contributes a pale caramelized malt character that provides just enough sweetness to carry the hops but leaves this with a drying effect overall. A touch of toasty cracker-like malt lingers a bit on the palate in the long finish.

This is quite a good example of a Pale Ale; simplistic perhaps, but it has the fresh hoppiness and nicely supporting, clean malt & fermentation character that is requisite of the style. In my never ending search for super fresh, hopped-up IPAs I sometimes forget how nice a hop-focused Pale Ale can be. The last couple fresh ones I have had definitely make me want to revisit this oft overlooked (at least by me) style.

Rich golden color with some great lacing. If the finish was a little bolder, this would be a great beer. I paid $10.99 for a six pack, so the price wasn’t too great.