Seven Barrel Pauls Pale Ale

Brewed by Seven Barrel Brewery
Style: American Pale Ale
West Lebanon, New Hampshire USA

Draft at the brewpub - poured a hazy dark amber in color with a small tannish head. Aroma was faintly sweet and malty... little else. Flavor was quite watery and not very strong at all. It almost tasted like it had been diluted. Not that good...

[cask at brewpub] Quite a bit of US hops in the nose with a touch of toffee coming through later. Hazy copper with bubbly foam that almost totally receded. Milder hops flavour than expected from aroma with a little caramel coming in behind and a mildly bitter ending. Fairly clean with perahps a little citrusy finish from the yeast. Light-medium body with a touch of lingering bitterness.

Draught pint at the brewpub. A spot of head clings to the unfiltered-looking, hazy dark amber body but doesn’t lace at all....faint citric hops and a spot of caramel show up in the weak aroma, at first fairly pleasant but eventually some odd fuesels/plastic notes show up and you know that all is not well.....as indeed the palate proves, again at first not so bad, dry and woody-twiggy (hops? or splinters?) and a bit buttery, not great but....eventually with just a few minutes warmth truly unpleasant salty heavy mineral qualities show up and a soapy slickness....the moderate, reasonably appropriate carbonation doesn’t help or hurt: this is just way, way off, undrinkable after a quarter of the pint. Hideous stuff; this trip to 7 Barrel was actually worse than my first two and I doubt I will ever return.