Hales OBriens Harvest Ale

Courtesy of cbkschubert via trade

Bottle: The aroma is a combination of floral hops, caramel, and fruit. It pours a cloudy reddish-orange with a small soapy beige head. The flavor is loaded with caramel up front with just a hint of fruit. The finish has lots of floral hops that seem to mutate in a more citrus hop aftertaste. This tastes more like a hoppy APA than an amber.

12oz bottle received in a trade with cbkschubert today - Thanks Craig! - Poured amber wtih a short white head that stays o.k. and laces some. Aromas of caramel malts behind pretty bold citrus and grapefruit hops. Flavor is quite hoppy upfront too with good citrus grapefruit bitterness and some caramel malts to the middle before a slight bitter finish. Slightly carbonated and medium bodied.. Not bad for an amber..

Matte amber pour with a thin white head of lace. Aroma is slightly hoppy, but earthy and rich. Flavor is a sweet malt center with a fringe of hops that tickles the edges of my tongue. The body is chewy and fulfilling. A very nice amber ale. Easily a session beer.

Nice aroma of piney hop - not super strong, just nice. Hazy amber color with a white head that laced a bit on its rapid departure. Starts with pine. Mouthfeel a bit thin. A little malt pops up, and then the piney hop returns to finish. It’s nice. More like an IPA than the typical amber. Could drink this regularly.

12 oz. Bottle. Pine stands out on the nose along with some citrus. Orange body with off white head. Flavor is almost like the Menace but thinner texture in the body. Medium citrus oranges is the dominate flavor but more of a dry citrus aftertaste like chewing on the vine or peel of an orange. Good beer nonetheless.

Well! What a lovely surprise! Rich and creamy and tough. Reminds me of all the women I’ve fallen prey to. Color is nice and the nose invites you into a strong experience. The taste is smooth, yet strong. Again, like my women. Not too much heat as it’s obscured by the generous amount of hop bite at the end, but the heat is there. Nice bonus beer from a trade that I hadn’t considered and now I want more. I’d like to see what getting totally wrecked on this would be like. Good ale. You go find some. Now.

Color is oranged, pale coppery brown and musty tinted. Small unlasting cap of off-white foam lets losse to some lacing in inky strings. Aroma is pretty solid with a dark resiny pine oil over a crystalized orange marmalade. Taste is quick to the point with a nice grab upfront of toastifed malts and dried hoppyness. Middle gets oily with pine and very dark orange. Finish is slenderly bittered, contracting its pine sided tone to build a small, toasty edged, orange oil filled hut on the palate. Feel is moderately bold and medium, nearly full actually, for a pale that is. Its pretty solid, tends to have a gleaming, darker hop tendency to its bitterness. Not quite a hard edge to its malt toastyness, but leads on as if there’s more, when there’s not. Good balance and tone all throughout its character. West coast influenced, yep. A pretty solid pale ale that could be quaffed in quantity.

Draft at Hale’s, alongside their amazingly good grilled meat load. Pours a deep, very-slightly hazy coppery orange. Thick moussy light tan head. Big c-hop bouquet; grapefruit, pine, maybe some lemon. Super bold attack; off the charts for an amber: thick body, active carb, ultra assertive flavors. Biscuit, caramel, toast, nut, pine, grapefruit, and bitter resin thicken up the palate. Lingering bitter finish. Very like a kick-ass IPA. Gotta be the best amber on the face of the planet, but...is it really an amber?