Great Waters Stonehenge Pale

Formerly brewed at Great Waters Brewing
Style: English Pale Ale
St. Paul, Minnesota USA

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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CASK: Orange/Amber Color with Off White Frothy Head. Light Grains and Citrus on the Nose. Similar on the Tongue...Nice Light Grains and Citrus Notes... Light Creamy Mouthfeel. Nice Malty Backbone with a Light Dry Grain Aftertaste. Nice Session...Light and Refeshing.

Fresh from the cask pull, this beer is a beautiful deep amber, brightly clear, and topped by a couple inches of creamy off-white foam. Good head retention and lacing. Green hoppy aroma. This beer is mainly about the hops, fresh and green a tangy with a little bit of unripe peach. The malt is well hidden, but reminded me a bit of Boddington’s - mild and slightly honeyed. Very creamy texture to this beer.

On cask a little while back. I didn’t concentrate to heavily on this one, which is an approach that tends to fit GW’s brews pretty nicely on most occasions, i think. Yellowish, caramel colored brew with a slightly lagery aroma, nutty tones included. Somewhat bitter flavor with a more pronounced sour character, tart like lime or lemon juice. Not nearly as interesting as TH’s pub ale or as Stonehenge - each recommended over this brew.

Cask. Hazed caramel-orange in color with a thin, creamy and orangish-grey sheaf retracting and retaining well. Oranges freshly sprung from the tree produce pulp like bitters into the nose while an orange flavored nip backdoors it in a sequential waft. Mild chocolate interspersed with sanded walnut barnyard planks produces an additional, admirable scent. Bitterness comes out in the flavor with toffee, moving with a delectable curacau nougat sense. Cask bitterness is at its best, producing lively orange citric tendencies and marmalade caramelized with brown sugar. Medium-bodied with a caramel complexity to be saluted. Finish gives us a liquid pool of orange caramel crème with a simultaneous sense of sucked on honey graham lozenge flavors.

Okay, I had this brew on cask and enjoyed it, looked forward to taking a growler home, forgetting that was impossible...but they did have the "UK Pale" in growlers, and it turns out that it’s the same beer as Stonehenge, but dispensed by co2...at least that’s what I’m told. Why two names for the same beer? Don’t know the answer... So, I’m entering it here. Now, on to the beer... Cloudy orange appearance, no head to speak of... Plenty of fruity esters in the nose, apricot and peach, small hops... juicy malt...sweet and pleasant. Nice hops on the palate, but altogether mild and easy. Fruit plays it’s part in the flavor. Not too malty, not too hoppy, just right, well-balanced, straightforwardly drinkable beer. Hops are tastier and more appreachable halfway through the glass. I didn’t get them so much from the cask version, which was too, too mild for my liking. (But still, strikingly goodalicious.) If a delectable, downable ale with just enough hops to tickle the tongue is what you crave, head to Great Waters for some Stonehenge...where a man is a man and the children dance to the pipes of pan...where the demons dwell, and the banshees live and they do live well...Stone henge.

On cask at the brewpub: A very nice rusty yellow color that once the cask action settles is very clear in body. A medium, creamy, ivory colored foam sits atop for length. Small stringy lacing displays itself while being consumed. Aroma is light but sturdy of a dark, dried, grassyness, and a small whole grain toasted malt tone. Taste is simple yet giving with a wonderfully mild display of moderately toasted malts with a great little dark, dry, grassy edge in its hopping. Finish has a nice crunchy snap and rounded smoothness as it drys lightly with toasted grass notes and bread crusts. Some slight sweetness makes some balancing acts in some places. Firm, smooth, medium/light body. Texture is simple with a cask drawn smoothness that has a slight breadyness and frothyness to it. A nice fit along with the taste. I absolutely loved this beer. The numbers don’t say as much here as I’d like. It’s a solid seesionable pale that goes perfect for watching the World Cup. A delightfully easy going brew that’ll perk your buds just enough and keep you wanting more. Super solid good stuff!