San Diego Beer Blog

The first in a series of posts dedicated to comparing San Diego beers within a specific style. Pale Ale being one of the most popular styles, it was an obvious choice for the first challenge. I wanted to keep things simple, so I drove down to BevMo and grabbed five different beers. These five were all easily accessible at the time, we’ll run the Pale Ale tastings again with some of the breweries that I’ve left out at a later date.

Here’s the basic idea of how we’re going to run the single blind (the drinkers don’t know what they’re rating) tastings. Each beer will be assigned a number, we’ll pull numbers at random to select the order of the tastings. From there, each participant will be given ~4 ounces to review. Their thoughts and rankings on each beer will be reported below. Like I said earlier, simple.

Our Tasters

1. Dad: Novice brewer - expert drinker.
2. Dook “Awesome” Schweikert: New to ales, but has a fondness for flavorful beer.
3. g$: Matt makes me drink beer
4. Jorge: I likez teh beerz.

A great group for our premier challenge! On to the results.

Green Flash Extra Pale Ale
6 Pack - $9.99

This American-Style Pale Ale has a bright golden color as the name indicates. Cascade hops impart a floral aroma that is accented by citrus notes lent from Chinook hops. The hop flavors mingle with premium pale malted barley to create a flavorful ale that is crisp and refreshing.

1. Clean finish, good beer - needs more hops.
2. Light airy smell, hint of hops, full flavor with a hoppy dry finish, good carbonation, smooth body.
3. Kind of flat, bitter, light colour, bland scent
4. Flowery/hoppy aroma, very crisp - bitter (not bad) after taste, clean finish

Alesmith X Extra Pale Ale
22oz - $3.99 - 5.5% - 1.054 OG

AleSmith X is our refreshing Extra Pale Ale. Pale Yellow color, bright white head. Aroma of fresh hops with notes of citrus and pine.

1. Excellent taste and finish. Great balance of hops w/ no after taste.
2. Hit of hops then clean scent, smooth malty finish, hoppy body, slighly hoppy after taste
3. Floral scent, good finish, strong initial hop flavour, golden colour
4. Great color! Fruity, smooth. Very quick, clean finish.

Stone Pale Ale
22oz - $3.49 - 5.4% - 41 IBUs

Our flagship ale, Stone Pale Ale is our Southern California interpretation of the classic British pale ale style. Deep amber in color, Stone Pale Ale is robust and full flavored. A delicate hop aroma is complemented by a rich maltiness. This is an ale for those who have learned to appreciate distinctive flavor. Stone Pale Ale is great by itself, or with food that requires a beer of character.

1. Good beer - no aroma or hop flavor. Can definitely taste the grains.
2. Slight aroma, almost nil, very malty, almost like a brown, full flavor, low hops, smooth finish.
3. Fruity scent, dark colour, slight bitter taste, nutty ?
4. Nice amber color, very light aroma, nutty, clean flavor.

Firehouse American Pale Ale
6 Pack - $7.99

A delighful example of the classic American Pale Ale style. It has deep amber color and full bodied complex character with no after taste. The fragrant bouquet and spicy flavor are the results of the generous use of the best cascade hops.

1. Deeper color and flavor than the one above - good but not a favorite
2. No aroma, nutty smokey flavor, smooth body, slightly dry hint of hoppy finish. A beer that doesn’t know what it wants to be.
3. Orangey, no aroma, quick finish, initial hop overload then meh…
4. Nice reddish color, fruity aroma, not remarkabe flavor.

Ballast Point Yellowtail Pale Ale
22oz - $3.49

So where can you taste a Kolsch? There are no Kolsches being imported into the United States. So you could fly to Cologne. A better idea is to come to Ballast Point Brewing Company and try our Yellowtail Pale Ale Kolsch. We make it with 5% Wheat, finish hop it with Liberty and Tettnanger hops, and ferment it with a yeast we borrowed from a brewery in Cologne. So come on in and enjoy a taste of the Rhineland!!

1. Taste the grains/malt.
2. Slight aroma, malty, good full body, unique after taste.
3. No aroma, medium colour, slight smoky flavour, no after taste, medium hops.
4. Light aroma, almost a “brown ale” taste

Overall
We had a ton of fun drinking these San Diego Pale Ales and discussing them with each other. The overall favorite was Alesmith - X Extra Pale Ale, congrats. We’re working on the Porter Challenge next, stay tuned…