Empire Purgatory Pale

Formerly brewed at Empire Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Syracuse, New York USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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Sampled at the Syracuse location. Light bronze colour; fruity, citric hop nose (cascades); good quality bitterness - not overpowering but gives it a nice bite; after this, however, there is nothing else. Needs complexity and more malt.

I was never so happy as the day I stepped into the Empire Brew pub on Main Street Buffalo. Yes it was on a school field trip and yes I returned to the bus with three pints of Purgatory under my belt and my food in a take out container because there wasn’t enough time to eat but hey. The beer didn’t look like much but it had a delicious citrus kick to it with just the right amount of hops. And yes Jer, it definitely is (well was sadly) a breakfast beer. Smooth mouthfeel, not overly distinctive head but a smooth bight from the hops with a great finish. I can’t believe I had the presence of mind back then to make notes about this beer and more so that I found them but hey... that’s the way my brain works sime times!

Summer 2002: Had this many times in the brewery and at a 4th of July party for the employees. This was a beer I enjoyed, but not my favorite one from Empire. Hazy golden/copper color. Citrus, & grapefruit notes, with some pine in the nose. Tastes quite bitter and aggressively hoppy, with an oily mouthfeel.

UPDATED: MAR 10, 2005 grapey aroma with other fruit notes too...cloudy bronze color with a frothy and lacey head..tad grainy flavors with grapeseed touches and some hoppy bitterness thrown in for good times..

Sampled at the Rochester location. Clear amber. Small off-white head. Leafy, fresh hop aroma w/ lots of grapefruit. Sticky, medium body. Nice fresh hoppy flavour w/ good malt background.

Matt calls it a breakfast beer; Tastes very much like grapefruit. Cest What offers Al's Cask Ale which is similar, but not as aggressively grapefruity as Purgatory. I was told it was 8% as well. The bitterness was nice, but its not the most refereshing beer in the world.

This didnt strike me as an IPA, if that isnt a mistake and Empire thinks this is in fact an IPA. Citrusy to some extent, but has a bit of a stale hops flavor that lingers in the back of the palette. Moderate bitterness, but had that meaty/metallic flavor in the finish, similar to Ithaca Pale ale that i hate. as for the trivia, I guess. . . cascades!

Had at the Rochester location. Good colour, a somewhat hoppy smell, but more subtle than most Pales. A good overall beer, but the aftertaste is lacking and only hop flavours really show through. A good one to try if you are at one of the locations, but more of an APA instead of an IPA.

Orange color. Piney hop aroma. Oily, plenty of organic hops, very big, finishes dry. Nice pale ale.

Very small head, it does look like tea. Very sweet aroma almost like lemonade with sugar, but! ... Nicely bitter, good decent sample of an IPA.