Steelhead Harvest Rye

Brewed by Steelhead Brewing Co.
Style: American Pale Ale
Burlingame, California USA

Serve in Lager glass, Shaker

Tasted on 1/23/11 on draft at Steelhead Irvine. Pours cloudy but bright orange with a thick off-white head that slowly recedes to rocky and uneven lace. The nose is more tropical fruit hops along with caramel malt, spicy rye, along with some floral and bitter resin notes also from the hops. The flavor starts off with some caramel malt, moving to the more tropical hoppy notes, and a good amount of citrus and resin bitterness on the back. The body is medium with a sticky texture, average carbonation, and a long tropical fruit, caramel malt, and resin bitterness.

Draught pint at Redbones on 12/14/06
Medium golden in color with notes of straw and copper. White head is rather dense, well-retained and laces quite profusely. Medium-high clarity, slight haziness.
Dry, almost malt devoid aroma is pungently sharp with white grapefruit, perfumey rye and a strong spiciness that seems somehow heavy. Light soapiness as well. Lemons, more grapefruit and just altogether way too much bitterness and dryness. A bit of white bread and fleeting hints of dough lie behind it. Medium to medium-high strength, but it’s very singular. Very sharp; rye needs to be supported by some sweeter malts, not just heavily bitter hops.
Bitter and acidic immediately, confounding the tongue and quickly fatiguing the palate with bitterness and dryness. Malt sweetness is very brief and mostly it just seems like wet texture. Maybe some toastiness, but that does nothing to help the balance. Rye is again sharp and perhaps a bit nutty, but again, nuttiness does not add balance. Wet, but rather full texture, with medium-tight carbonation. No alcohol or flaws, but just heavily unbalanced and a poorly thought out grain bill/mash schedule it seems.