North Coast Red Seal Ale

Brewed by North Coast Brewing Company
Style: American Pale Ale
Fort Bragg, California USA

This is ok, but didn’t really do that much for me. It’s a reddish copper with a big but airy off-white head that steadily dissipates. The aroma is mostly hops - citrus, pine and grassy, with a faint hint of malt. In taste, it has very light sweetness and maltiness with more pronounced, but still fairly mild, hop flavour and bitterness. The bitterness is not really strong, but it certainly dominates the whole beer, since the body is thin, the malt presence exceedingly weak, and it is uncomplex. It’s not bad and has some flavour, while it is not unpleasant, but it is nothing remotely special to me and reminds me of say a mild, blander version of Bear Republic Red Rocket, without the taste, body, balance, complexity, or well-roundedness, largely due to the apparent weakness of the malt element. Essentially, it’s character is of mild hop flavour and bitterness only with almost nothing else, on a fairly thin, watery body.

Poured a reddish copper with amber hues. Well carbonated. One finger, creamy, yellowish. The aroma was hoppy, citrusy, grassy. The flavor was waxy, well carbonated, crisp grassy, hoppy, crisp, and English on the malt end. Palate was crisp and waxy and the finish grassy.

I like APAs and have made more than a few so it is hard for anything to stand out from the crowd. This one stands out from the crowd. Nice citrus hops with some resin thrown in, amber color, decent malts but not awe inspiring. Nonetheless, a great APA and I’d be a very happy camper if this was available on tap around here.

Bottled, consumed on 12/13/07. Slightly hazy medium gold with nice off-white head. Expected grapefruit hop aroma. Tart and hoppy with some bready malt lurking in there. Bold bitterness like orange rinds mix with black pepper for lingering finish. Not well-balanced: bitter is by far the most prevalent flavor.

great head, thick, copper hue, malts prevalent, not sweet, grapefruit like, thickness to it, enjoyed it

Poured a copper-amber light body with a medium-sized white head. Nose of rich hops and semi-sweet malts. Sticky yet light. Freshing with good lacing left in glass. Great summer session beer.

This was a nice version of an american pale ale. It had that definite hop resin flavor and decent bitterness. The body was pretty round, malty enough, and balanced decently. Nice color, nice performance (good head, good retention, good lacing).

Sweet citrusy hoppy aroma. Flavor is hoppy and bitter with even more bitter aftertaste. Very herbal and spicy with definite grapefruit notes.