Mission Street Pale Ale ranked too low?

Part of the problem is that it is at Trader Joes, and they don’t refrigerate their beers, so you have to get it super fresh (less than 2 weeks old) or else you will be disappointed.

Originally posted by DYCSoccer17
Part of the problem is that it is at Trader Joes, and they don’t refrigerate their beers, so you have to get it super fresh (less than 2 weeks old) or else you will be disappointed.

Coincidentally, I just had one of these today. Good beer! But why isn’t it great? These are my thoughts:

1) the beer has known consistency issues we’ve discussed here before, perhaps related to
i) unrefrigerated storage at Trader Joes and other retailers (rebadges?)
ii) storage duration

2) even when done well, it’s greatest flaw is enough residual sugar to affect mouthfeel in both texture and heft. These days, beer fans have a variety of leaner pale ales to choose from that show greater hop expression by simply being more completely finished.

This is not a case of reviewers thinking more beer = better beer.

On the contrary I think beers like like Row 2/Hill 56 probably have fewer IBU but have better hop expression because they’re simply more dry. You simply can’t have a great pale ale with that much residual sugar.

There’s actually very little residual sugar in this beer. Finishes about 1.008 and is mostly north american pale malt with a little munich and a dash of carapils malt. It’s really tough to find APAs with less residual sugar. The yeast does add some esters that aid the impression of sweetness though. Definitely different than a cal ale beer. I actually think it’s too dry for what most people are looking for in a pale ale. They expect more crystal malt flavor like you get in something based on sierra nevada. It’s more along the lines of a pilsner with American hops and ale yeast.

Originally posted by cquiroga

Originally posted by kmweaver
Normally I’d point to style percentages... but yeah, even that’s surprisingly low. It’s a damn good pale ale. A regular rotation in our fridge.

See: "No prominent hoppiness, has difficulty standing up even to the hop monsters within its own style."

Originally posted by SamGamgee
There’s actually very little residual sugar in this beer. Finishes about 1.008 and is mostly north american pale malt with a little munich and a dash of carapils malt.

I love it - when I lived in a place with a TJ close by this was a regular go-to for me.

Seems like all the Mission St. beers are six months old by the time they hit my TJ shelves.

Originally posted by bgburdman9
The bottles at my local store always seem to be way out of date. I check every time but it seems like no one is buying it around here.

You all must be drinking something different than I am