500 mL bottle from Bruisn’ Ales at the second time of asking – I broke my first bottle from there when I was transporting it home.
Pour is an alarmingly clear, apparently over-carbonated bright gold with an equally alarming (considering the number of bubbles in the body of the beer) lack of head. Lace is also scant.
Nose and tastes give a grainy sweetness with some simple, English biscuit malts but not much else. Some light fruits. Great drinkability in the Atlanta heat, BUT this beer is a worry to me. In the first instance it seems to have crossed the line from Pale Ale into the contemporary, English “Golden Ale”. I am beginning to hate that “style” since I see it as nothing more than an effort on the part of the brewers to bow to lowest common denominator demand by dumbing down their Pale Ales and Bitters to macro lager like extents. I FULLY understand that brewers need to make a profit, and that they need to respond to consumer demand, but it pains me when brewers like Bateman’s seem to be giving in – a sign of the Apocalypse?
I dunno, I guess the brewers are not really to blame, it’s more a function of the dumbed down public in the face of macro lager advertising, but I am still bothered by it. I just don’t think that Bateman’s would have brewed a beer that tasted like this 5 or 10 years ago.
Maybe I’ve got it all wrong, but for me this beer is a sham and a shame.