Carolina Pale Ale

Brewed by Carolina Brewing Company
Style: English Pale Ale
Holly Springs, North Carolina USA

Serve in English pint, Shaker

Draft. Pours gold with a white head. light floral hoppy aroma with clean pale malty notes. The flavor has plain pale malts and light floral hops. Really more like a golden or blonde ale, but drinkable nonetheless.

Pours light amber yellow with a thin lacing of white head. Aroma of doughy citrus with just a hint of yeasty funk. Light body and very straightforward flavor. Pale malt with some slightly minerally and citrus notes. Hop bitterness opens up in the finish and finishes dry. I would like some more bready/roasty malt flavors going on, especially for an "English" style pale. This straight forward ’merican.

Bottle. Mostly golden with a hint of amber, thin white head. Subtle aroma of dough, floral, citrus. Light sweetness and light bitter on palate. Fairly light body, average carbonation, tingly finish. Overall pretty good.

UPDATED: JUL 13, 2011 Ar: Moderate grapefruit rind, light toast, touch of butterscotch. Ap: Deep golden, slightly hazy. T: Grapefruit up front, transitions to slight green apple, finish is toasty. P: Medium bodied, finishes dry, carbonation med-low. O: Easy drinking pale ale - hopped like an APA, but long toasty finish gives more of a substantial impression than run-of-the-mill APA - easy-drinking, solid, and satisfying.

I don’t wanna split hairs about style, but this seemed very much like an American Pale Ale as opposed to an English Pale. Nevertheless, I liked it. Nice slightly aggressive citrusy hops and a clean crisp malt base. Simple and easy to drink. I liked it.

THOUGHTS: A lot better than I was expecting from the label. I guess you can’t judge a beer by its label. Fairly British. Simple, but fairly well done. I could knock a few of these back. Way better than a macro. It could be a nice transition beer for beer novices. A little cloying by the end, but I probably could have chilled it a little better so that might have been the problem. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a medium gold with a small to average, white head that mostly diminished and left fair to good lacing. There were also very tiny particles of average density in the body. The aroma was a little weak. There was grain, caramel and crack; floral, perfumy, herbal and grassy hops; a little fruit and tea. The initial flavor was lightly sweet, slightly sour and lightly bitter; while the finish was lightly sweet, light to moderately bitter and slightly sour with a short to average duration. The medium body was a little syrupy with tingly carbonation and slightly chalky if any type of finish at first and then an ever so slight metallic finish after awhile.

Tap at brewery. I should preface this by saying I’m not a fan of pale ale’s. I find them boring and often just watery piss. For a pale ale though, this was good. There was some hoppy character to it, I noticed a hint of spice in it, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Nonetheless, a good offering from this little known brewery.

My Brother Pete had saved one of these from his travels and I had a sample today at his party. Pours a golden amber in color with a small white head. Yeasty aroma with floral hops. Flavor is slightly sweet for a pale ale, but nice. Bitter on the back end with a lingering hop finish.