12 oz single, thanks go out to ArrogantB for the trade. Nice mid-orange pour with very little carbonation but a nice formation of creamy head and some sticky, creamy lace. Looks classically good.
Very hoppy nose – seems quite dry. Clearly a simple beer, but why such huge hop presence even in this simple brew? I understand the Stone/West Coast philosophy, but this strikes me as a perfect beer to have more malt balance, and at 4.4% *could* be presented and marketed as a perfect session, easy drinking English type bitter (even though it would NOT be any of those things in reality). To me, a great opportunity missed.
Despite the very dry hop presence, this is still a drinkable beer, and indeed a half-decent Amber, but the harsh, dry, metallic bitter finish and aftertaste is really quite hard. For me it takes away from the beer. More malt balance required to smooth out the hops.
I dunno, where’s the balance?