Texican Pale Ale
Written: Apr 04 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Drinks real easy for a hophead
Cons: Everyone else would probably like more guts.
|
|
|
| beerfly's Full Review: Amber Ale |
After hosing St. Arnold's kristall, I thought the least I could do was to give their Amber a fair shot. I've had this beer before and liked it, and I've heard that it is superlative on cask. Let's pour it out and take a look at it.
I'm not sure I'd call this amber, Arnie, though I've heard arguments among beer cognoscenti (that's a $5 word for "geeks") that "amber" is not a color any more, it's a style. My, my. I'd say it's a bit lighter in color than amber, tending more towards coppery. The head's nice and white and fluffy... hey. It looks like the kristall head!
Smells great, smells like beer! My kinda beer, anyway; a firm bed of bread-fresh malt, a good snoot of hops (smells Cascadey, but you can't be too sure in these days of hop proliferation), and otherwise clean.
Not bad beer at all! That's actually pretty tasty stuff. The hops are prominent, as you'd expect in this style, your basic American Pale Ale/Sierra Nevada tribute beer. They hit you right away, and never let up, though they're hardly at IPA levels. The finish is long and full, lasting through several throat-clearing swallows, and I like that.
But the malt's a bit thin through there, and the cleanness of the nose is becoming a blandness under that colorful layer of hops. Yes, there are hops, there's even some malt support for them, but this boy's got undercarriage issues. I'm not sure I'd change it too drastically, a lot of people like that kind of hop-juice effect, and some would say it keeps it light. Maybe so.
I'd like a big sloppy chef salad or a serious antipasto with this, with layers on layers of marinated vegetables, hard-boiled eggs, anchovies, olives, meats and cheeses, all that stuff, because this one has the hop-buzz to slice through any of it. A friend of mine swears by Chinese food with a hoppy pale ale (which is really what this tastes like to me; it's not heavy enough for an amber), and he may be right; beef with oyster sauce might go well here, but I think I'd skip the seafood side.
Texas, you could do worse. If you've got a craving for a sloshable, fairly light-framed hoppy ale, this one will sure enough do.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
beerfly
|
|
Member: Lew Bryson
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Reviews written: 88
Trusted by: 82 members
About Me:
One bourbon, one Scotch, one beer, eh? I'll take Kentucky Spirit, Scapa, and HopDevil.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.