Alpha King - Three Floyds Brewing

Vitals:

Name: Alpha King

Style: American Pale Ale

IBU: 66

ABV: 6.5%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Trixie's Liquor

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a cloudy copper color with lots of tiny carbonation bubbles zooming through it. Half a finger of head that is off-white or even tannish. OK retention but a weak lacing (which was surprising) and a spare cap.

Smell: Smells like it will be very well-balanced...lots of maltiness and breadiness to it, but there is an equal backing of piney-hop presence on the nose. However, this is an extremely pleasant nose, as the sweetness mellows out the big piney hop notes.

Taste: This brew is malty from beginning to end, with other tastes highlighting at different points. Seems mostly like caramel and citrus fruit flavors lacing the beginning, but it actually evolves into a more citrus/piney hop finish. This is a very well-crafted and well-balanced beer; you get a bitter finish for sure, so if that's not your thing then you may not enjoy this one!

Mouthfeel: This brew is a bit creamier and heavier than I expected...it actually drinks more like an IIPA or IPA than an APA. This beer has a lot of nice aspects, though...it's oily (in a good way) so it coats your mouth a bit and is well carbonated (which most Three Floyds brews are).

Overall Grade: B+

Comments: This almost seems like it's improperly classified in a few ways. First, it drinks like an IIPA, not an APA. Second, the ABV is more similar to an IPA than an APA. This is a very good beer; having said that, I would probably take Hopalicious from Ale Asylum over this one, but that's only because I feel like this one is a bit maltier and I prefer my beer to be more on the hoppy end than malty. This is a very solid heavy APA; definitely not something you'll be drinking all night long, though!

Cheers,

Hurls

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

Vitals:

Name: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

Style: American Pale Ale

IBU: 37

ABV: 5.6%

Gravity: 13 deg. Plato

Purchased at: Trixie's Liquor

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a translucent amber color with virtually no carbonation bubbles. You get about a finger of foamy white head, which has decent retention and a thin cap. What really strikes me about this beer is the lacing is AMAZING...looks delicious.

Smell: You get slightly more of a malty smell here than a lot of hoppier APAs I've had recently (e.g. Hopalicious). Piney and citrus hops with some orange peel thrown in there as well. You get some lemon smell in there, but not much. This is just a damn good smelling beer.

Taste: Pretty much perfectly balanced. You get citrus flavor and hops up front and then a bitter, piney hop finish. The malts back the beer steadily the whole way through. I can truly say that this is a very rare find...a macro-brew quantity/distribution with close to a craft beer taste. This definitely beats a lot of sub-par-to-mediocre craft APAs I've had, but I still would stick with something like a Hopalicious for my money.

Mouthfeel: Medium body with very light carbonation. This beer is actually very drinkable and doesn't have much astringency to it that some pale ales give you. Overall a pleasant drinkability/mouthfeel experience.

Overall Grade: B+

Comments: This is a very solid beer that I'd pick over plenty of others. I truly do mean what I said about having a pretty solid craft brew taste but having the advantage of being a huge scale macro brew that you can get most anywhere. If you're looking to try out pale ales to see if you'll like the style I would suggest that you absolutely start here!

Cheers,

Hurls