Hideout Belgian Pale

7-22-06 MBG. Dark copper decent white head. Aroma and flavor both rather muted. faint stale euro hops and some dry english like bitterness. Doesn’t really resemble anything belgian IMO. Rather dissapointing.

Draught pint at the brewery on 5/12/06. The brewery seems to brew with a retentive head on their beers, for the most part. Thus, this deep copper-golden beer shows a very high clarity, with some glassiness, as the cornmeal-specked head shows medium-to-strong retention for a draught beer served cold out of a shaker. The nose is interesting. Not what I expected? Heavy dry hops? With European/English varieties? Very strange, and quite bitter and plant like, with some pils malt and Belgian aromatic malt catching up with it as it warms. Certainly the water is quite clean on the beer, as some light calcium-like minerals play very lightly on the palate. But there is certainly a return to the hops, on the finish, as leafiness, creating some astringency but well mixed in with the round, fairly sweet malts. An odd breadiness, perhaps, but I would guess hops, are the main factor in this one, a bit too overdone, unfortunately. Alcohol and yeast are quite minimal, though it is Belgian in nature.

hazy orangish appearance with minimal head...aroma of sugary malts, spice, and caramels...flavor is a watered down version of the aroma, and is somewhat herbal....

On tap at Hideout. Hazy orange-brown body, thin off-white head. Candy-like sweet aroma, with banana (circus peanuts) and caramel, reminding me of a dunkelweizen. Bready, caramely body with clove and a touch of banana, but lacks sweetness. Dry, rather empty beer. The caramels are dull, the breads are stale. Light bitter finish. Decent aroma, otherwise lackluster.