Mudgee Pale Ale

Brewed by Mudgee Brewing Company
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
Mudgee, NSW, Australia

Oh no. This beer had nothing going for it. Blanched yellow colour, flat. Sour smell, although no infection. Watery mouthfeel. No discernable bitterness. Maybe some very faint malt flavour, or am I imagining that? Give it a miss.

Aroma: pretty gently but with a few quirky notes. Flavour: gentle citrus notes that I didn’t detect in the aroma.

Draught, Lawson Park Hotel, Mudgee. Hazy pale gold body with washy white head. Subdued citrus and spice hop aroma, a bit of bready malt and general skankiness. High carbonation, body is reasonably lean, has an underlying ’Aussie skank’ element to it that gives the palate a chalky dryness. Some nice hops on the body, underlying bready malt, goes down quite nicely but has an off flavour that ruins it a bit. Not a bad micro pale ale.

pours with 90% head on top of 10% beer, a strange inversion of the usual way of doing things. aside from the carbonation it’s a serviceable pale ale whose main aim is not to seem too snooty by having too much flavour. smells of NOTHING AT ALL - well perhaps some faint celery, white pepper and formic acid. some pleasant bready maltiness and nice mixture of fruit and saltiness/acidity to wind it up. some tinned peaches and pepperiness in a quick and very dry finish. perfectly ok, probably a good coopers alternative if they could fix the carbonation and get a bit more hops in the snout.

This is one of those "New World pale ales" that I dearly hope don’t catch on as a style down under because they’re so desperately dull. The end result, as here, tends to be an NZ Saaz-driven thin, fruity ale of no real distinction. Perfectly drinkable but disappointing for something sailing under the "pale ale" flag. This one from a newcomer to the NSW beer scene was standard lager-gold in colour and showed excellent head retention. The aroma was dominated by Saaz, but with a solid malty spine. Bit chalky, with some peaches. Soft carbonation. Quite a strong mineral note in the flavour. Feature of the local water? Picked up the same thing in the Spring APA. Doughy malts and thin fruits. Reminded me of Barons Pale Ale, a wishy-washy blah sort of ale. (Draught at Australian Hotel beerfest 2007)