Goose Island Hopscotch Ale

Brewed by Goose Island Beer Company (Brewpubs)
Style: American Pale Ale
Chicago, Illinois USA

Serve in Lager glass, Shaker

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On tap at Clybourn. Pours a hazed golden yellow with a white head. Caramel and pale malts in the nose with pine and spicy hops rounding out the sweetness. Light sweetness of caramel/pale malts with a floral and piney hop flavor. Bitterness is mild but lasting. Decent beer.

Found this one hard to rate because while it was good, it fell short in a lot of areas. A little mild and thin.

Sampled from the tap at the brewpub. Pours a clear golden orange with a white head that dissipates quickly to the edges. Aroma has a good amount of pear with backing grain and a bit of grass. Flavor starts slightly sweet with a grain and pear note but is more slightly bitter pear and bread in the finish.

Draft at GI Clybourn on 8/4/11. Pours amber. Small white head. Mild hop aroma. Mild bitterness with some caramel, malt, and bread. Decent easy drinking brew. Overall pretty mild PA. Sessionable.

[Tap] Pours a clear golden color with a quickly receding head. English hop nose with some caramel and molasses thrown in. Basic light malt, bread and mild hop flavors. Light skunked notes. Grainy and grassy in the finish. Mild carbonation and light palate. Decent balance. Remarkably average in every respect.

Flight on tap at the Clybourn brewpub (Chicago, IL). Pours a decent hazed orange amber pour, healthy sunset glow with a decent frothy tannish head. Dies to a film and laces small. Aromas are some nice fruity melange, citrus and lemons, with grapefruit, some peach and melon. Pale malts, bread, and biscuits. Some toast, more fruit, some oranges. Initial is lighter bodied, fairly clean with some decent bitterness, grass and florals, light lemony citrus essence. Some bread, pale malts, touches of toast. Fairly clean, a touch soapy, more dry grass coming into the backend. Not complex, a touch of tangerine and guimball, peach. Nice. Fruity and clean, dry, with some lingering bready malts. Nice refreshing summer APA that doesn’t offer a hop screamer, more of a sessioner.

Draft at GI Clybourn. How the heck I’ve never rated this one, I’ll never know. I’ve seen it on tap so many times that it just seems odd. Anyway, pours an almost amber with a slight offwhite head. Big and billowy. On nose, fair amount of caramel with some floral and light citrus. Malt is kind of bland with the caramel dominating. On taste, sweet and a bit much caramel. Medium bitterness with a pleasing enough hop flavor. Just okay.

Tap. Standard scotch ale - smells and tastes like a sweatsock. Sorry - I just dislike the style.

On tap at Clybourn. Pours clear golden orange with white head. Aromas of faint hops and citrus with some caramel malts. Flavor was light for a pale ale. Some hops and citrus with mostly caramel malts. Mouthfeel was thin. Average at best pale ale.

On tap at Clybourn. This had a very mild hop aroma to it, but seemed to be dominated by a bready/yeasty flavor and aroma. Yeah I would some this up in one word... Bread

Draft. Included as part of a sampler at the brewpub. Tried many of the GI offerings over several visits to the brewpub while living in Chicago. I remembered liking pretty much everything but do not remember specifics.