Berkshire Steel Rail Extra Pale Ale

Brewed by Berkshire Brewing Co.
Style: American Pale Ale
South Deerfield, Massachusetts USA

Not bad, balanced hoppiness/maltiness. Slightly citrus with an herban & grassy nose. Not a great beer, but since it’s available at my local store in growlers on the cheap, I can’t complain much. I would put this above, say Peak Organic P.A., but below something like Sierra Nevada.

On tap Seamus O’Reilly’s in Holyoke. Gold color, medium head, slight pleasant aroma. Smooth taste. No after bite. Good beer.

A nice easy-drinking pale ale. Niice balance of hops and malt. An amber-like pour. I liked it and would drink again...nothing amazing, but very drinkable.

On tap at some place in Boston. Malty, balanced. Bready, light hops, unexciting.

Really tastes like corn. I don’t know how they got major adjunct flavor into a micro brewed pale ale, but they managed. Thin on the malt side and weak on the hop side. Really no hop character to speak of. Maybe slightly spicy. Palate is a little creamy. Really a crappy beer. Serious disappointment from a brewery I usually like.

Andy brought this over in a growler for us to try on September 4th, and we’re glad he did. From the growler, it pours a light golden color into a hazy body, with a large, fizzy white head. A mostly diminishing head and no lacing are what we have come to expect from growler beer, although that does not detract from an excellent presentation. Aroma is of light lemony hops with a moderate hint of doughy yeast. This one bursts with flavor, with a light sweet initial taste that blossoms into a robust sweet finish with hints of mango, and a slight touch of bitter. Light to medium on the mouth, it leaves a creamy feel behind with lively carbonation and a fruity taste. A well-balanced beer.

22 oz. bottle. Pours a slightly hazy light gold with a soapy white head that lasted less than halfway through the glass. Pleasant aroma of sweet malt, grassy hops, and some yeast. Flavor was tilted a bit to the sweet side, but not excessive. After the initial wave of malt, the hops kick in with some citrus resulting in a crisp, but not dry, finish. Enjoyable.

(22 oz bottle: Obtained 24-Feb-06 in trade with Eyedrinkale, thanks Mike!) Grain, grass, dust, orange zest, and a bit of funk in the nose, but it’s only lighter aromatic overall, with little in the way of classic hop aroma. The beer has a pleasant flavor, but it’s all up front, with things fading off the palate quickly in an uninteresting finish. Extremely grainy malts set a prominent base, the grassy, dusty hops contributes plenty of additional flavor without much bitterness, and a light note of orange peel shows up in the finish. Light-medium in body with enough carbonation to make me burpy. Bright golden orange in color and fully cloudy, it’s unusual to not be able to see through a beer this color, but this beer isn’t the least bit transparent. The snow white head is bubbly in nature rather than creamy, and after peaking at a quarter inch, it settles back to a filmy layer. The bubbles don’t leave any lacing on the glass, instead dissipating about as quickly as the head. So not a bad beer, but it’s an extra pale ale, and the way they’ve brewed this beer, it’s not really my thing. It’s light and pleasant and wouldn’t mind drinking a cold pint of this now and again when I’m looking for something refreshing on a hot day. But I definitely wouldn’t drink this with any regularity.