Stone Pale Ale

Nice to have a Stone session beer. I like their beer, but most of them are too strong to drink all night. I think I’ve finally realized that I don’t like IPAs that much, but I do like pale ales and love Double IPAs. And this beer made me realize that. Very well balance. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a dark amber with a small, off-white head. The aroma was light carmel malt, light to moderate perfume and citrus hops along with maybe some cherry. The initial flavor was lightly sweet and lightly to moderately bitter, while the finish was moderately sweet and moderately to heavily bitter with and average to long finish. The flavor was a nice balance of caramel malt and citrus hops. The medium body was dry with soft carbonation and light metallic finish.

This beer was poured into a shaker and has a nice clear amber pale color and no head just some minor foam at the top but it fades rather quick. It does however leave some minor streaks along the sides of the glass.There is a nice sweet honey like and hoppy aroma to it. as you drink it there is a robust and intence woody initial flavor which hits the top of your tounge and tastes rather great. The palate is very malty with hopps to complement the woody and malty flavor. There is a nice warming honey taste that lasts for a decent amount of time along the sides of your mouth.

Bright hoppy aroma. Nice malt sweet flavor balanced by the bitterness of the hops. Finish is crisp bitter hops. A very good pale ale.

Aroma is fruity and malty. Traditional Stone malt profile. Taste is decently malty and slightly hoppy. Finish is very smooth and, well, I really wish I had this fresh. This bottle tastes aged. It is a good beer, but I cannot give it the marks I would a fresh beer. Good but not overwhelmingly so.

Had this beer on 6/21/2003. Aroma is a nice fresh hop scent with a hint of mildly roasted malt. Color is a deep burnt orange with good carbonation and nice head. Like the IPA there is a small amount of fish food looking floaties, but little less. Taste is sweet, hoppy, and bitter. Starting with a medium body it goes down crisp with a genteelly sweet taste coming on. Finish comes with this sweet malt flavor followed by a crisp bitterness and smooth fresh hop flavor. Overall I feel this is one of the best Pale Ales I have ever had and only misses being excellent by a hair. I think the only thing that could make it better would be to back off the sweetness a bit. As you drink it this part gets a bit stronger making it feel a bit like a Scottish Ale.

Bottle. Very nice balance of hops and malt. Delicious. One of my favorites.

Everyone seems to say the same thing about this beer: beautiful, copper color, quite nicely malty and a pleasant, but restrained amount of hops. I cannot disagree. I liked it quite a bit, but I probably won’t opt for this one too often given the other (and I think superior) APAs out there.

One of my "go to" beers! Very drinkable, smooth, very good aftertaste. There are not many beers from stone brewing that arnt great!