Mendocino Blue Heron Pale Ale

Brewed by Mendocino Brewing Company
Style: American Pale Ale
Hopland, California USA

a boring and average pale. medium bodied, its easy to drink, but could have packed more flavor than just the malt and hop hints.

Mendocino Blue Heron Pale Ale 12 oz bottle Unknown bottling (recent?), flown into 05/07 Medium pour in an English pint. Poured a clear hay yellow with a large frothy white mostly lasting head. Smelt of moderate light bread and perfume hops. Taste was upfront moderate to strong sweet bread and light bitter perfume and orange citrus hops followed by a moderate to strong bitter grassy and light sweet bread on an average finish. Palate was light to medium bodied, oily, softly carbonated and lightly astringent. Overall, this is a fairly tame pale ale. Sweetness and bitterness are balanced well, but there seems to be a bit too much malt sweetness for a pale ale.

bitter but not in a good way. hops taste burnt. got a bottle at potomac wine and spirits. thin head, little to no lacing. there a sweetness missing that would improve this brew.

Bottle. Slightly hazy amber with a moderate head leaving spotty lacing. Honeyed malt aroma with some apple and floral notes. Light caramel malt flavor, mostly sweet, with a health-food graininess noticeable on the finish, followed finally on the aftertaste by a bitter citrus hoppiness. Seems like the malt and hops are fighting, rather than balancing each other. The result is too sweet yet too hoppy. The relative parts of this one just seem out of whack.

bottle. Pours an ever-so-slightly hazy yellow with a fair white head. I wasn’t expecting very much out of this, so I wasn’t too disappointed. The aroma is musty with scents of hay and paper. It actually brought to mind a European style lager more than an APA. The flavor though is distinctively that of a pale ale. The hops are more defined once I take a sip, but they are chalky. A fair level of caramel sweetness and dough rounds things out and even a little bit of tea is hinted at. Everything seems well balanced here, but the hop character, while assertive and citrusy, isn’t as clean as I’d like. This isn’t a memorable pale, but all right nonetheless.

Bottled. Thanks Fredrik. Pale golden colour. Vague aroma - honey pastilles were most prominent. Pale malty flavour with low levels of flavouring hops. Good bitter. Bottle was about 1/2 a year old.

Bottle poured a clear gold with a small lingering white head. Aromas of bread, straw, spicy hops and a hint of citrus. Palate was light bodied crisp and dry. Flavors of bread, straw and a hint of citrus with a crisp dry moderatly bitter finish.

aroma of citrus and light pine. kind of like a watered down kitchen cleaner. the my bottle was a little stale and seemed to be a little watered down. flavor was mostly lemon and orange with a little pine and some light carmel as well. blah.