Santa Cruz Pale Ale

From a 22 oz bottle purchased from the North Coast Coop in Arcata, CA this poured a rich reddish amber color with a very foamy white head and lots of lacing rings as it slowly settled. Nose is very much of floral and piney hops. Smells more like an IPA. Mouthfeel is medium. Flavor is dominated by bitterness, and it is excessively so. Finish is also bitter. While I love IPAs and ordinarily like the bitterness, this was in some respects not something i liked a great deal. This would be a better APA if it was toned down a little.

Bottle from Bevmo. Has a nose of bready malted grain as well as a plain English pale ale hop aroma. The appearance is a simple tinted gold with a fluffy foaming of head. The flavor is slightly metallic and the hops will become more noticeable but still allowing for a malt backbone to hold the drink through. Not my cup of tea.

08-Jul-08 (22-oz bottle: Purchased 12-Jun-08 for $2.99 at BevMo in La Jolla, CA) The brewer appears to have lost perspective with this beer as this is one of the more bitter and resiny American Pale Ales I’ve sampled. The entry is reasonably balanced between dry, pale malt and piney hops, but even then, it’s tilted toward the hoppy end. But within a second or two, the balance is shattered by the highly bitter hop barrage of pine, resin, and grapefruit and orange rind. And once the beer is swallowed, there is only one sensation in the mouth: intense bitterness. This is not even remotely enjoyable. Additional finishing flavors of dust and plastic phenolics reinforce that this beer is all about the hops. Aside from the bitterness on the palate, this medium-bodied beer is very dry and clean on the palate and moderately carbonated. The nose is very hoppy and grapefruity, but it’s more enjoyable than the flavor because you can’t smell bitterness. Lightly sweet pale malts help achieve some aromatic balance, but phenolics do play a part in the nose too, however. Amber in color with just a slight haziness, the body is initially topped by nearly two inches of off-white foam. Though the lively head is comprised of large bubbles which typically die down quickly, head retention here is terrific, holding a quarter-inch layer for the remainder of the session. And a patchwork of foamy lace covers much of the glass. But as nice as this beer is to look at, the bottom line is that the beer is just too bitter. With no pretense of balance to this beer, the beer isn’t fun to drink and the brewer would do well to back off the bittering hops. If the Pale Ale is this hoppy, what’s the IPA going to be like?!

This beer is great! Everything I look for in a Pale Ale. Nice color, crisp, spicy, citrus, malty. Clean and well hopped.

Bottle. Deep orange / amber pour with a lot of white head. Aroma is grapefruit and orange peel. Flavor has some nice malt, sort of like an amber, some caramel and some biscuit aspects. The hops have light citrus flavor, but mainly provide somewhat sharp bitterness (like dry hopping). Decent.