Hancock & Co Grand Pale Ale

Hancock & Co Craft Brewing
Brewed at McCashin Family Brewery
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Ponsonby, Aukland, New Zealand

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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Possibly the nastiest beer I’ve tried so far this year. Unpleasantly cloudy with a wet cardboard aroma and dull, murky palate. Just another in a long line up of sily attempts by New Zealand’s big breweries to try and fool the public with fake craft beer. To paraphrase Monty Python, ’This is not a beer for drinking. This is a beer for laying down and avoiding.

Very bitter. The label mentions among other things nuances of tobacco, and man I’m getting that in spades. Reminds me of when I was a practising smoker rolling cigarettes and getting stray strand of tobacco on my tongue. Well, not quite that intense. To be honest, this is a slow sipping beer for me, it’s not quite balanced enough for me to want another one immediately.

Not your typical Pale Ale, it was a enjoyable easy drinking beer with great hop flavour..

average carbonation, bitter, long finish, light sweetness, very bitter, toast, I loved the malty , hoppy bitterness & aftertaste ,a real cracker I really enjoyed this . More flavour than Boundary Rd Flying Forttress but then this is a step up @ around $14 for 4 x 330 ml bottles.

I was also surprised by the not so pale appearance of this pale ale, and the head was rather healthy looking too. There is a definite nuttiness and strong zesty hop taste going on (almost dear I say it, a bitter seltzer hop comparison) I enjoyed the first bottle. Will now open another.

So, thinks I, another pale ale. I suppose it’ll be as pale as it can be just to satisfy the requirements of it actually being beer, with a fart of carbonation and a healthy sprinkling of bugger-all. Hmm, thinks I again. It seems darker than I expected. There’s real colour, like a golden, caramel colour with a white head that leaves some lace down the sides. The aroma brought a surprise of good resinous hops, apricot tart, sour burnt caramel and maybe a faint nutty woodiness. And it’s flavourful too. A healthy dose of astringent bitterness, like taking a bite out of a green pinecone (not that I recommend such a thing). Not a pale ale for the faint of heart. A caveat that actually serves as a recommendation.

Little bit of sweetness of the nose. Full bodied and long on the palate with the tobacco notes lingering.

Wow. This beer is fantastic. Firstly, on the nose, you can smell the malt and a little bit of the floral hops. This bottle states that it is continually hopped and you can tell that when you take the first mouth full. The blend of the malts and hops rides well in the mouth. A little bitter to finish but overall a satisfying beer. I cannot believe this is just 4.8%. Not overally sessionable but that’s fine. A few bottles of this would do well over a few hours.