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What's Your GOTO Commercial American Styled Pale Ale?


Beerlust

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What is your favourite commercial American styled Pale Ale & why do you like it so much?

Tell us as much as you know about what's in it & how it is made etc.

Cheers,

Lusty.

Edited by Beerlust
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This was a very hard question to answer, and I’m not sure I can fully as I don’t have one favourite. I like variety like a lot of people on this forum. If I had to pick one, I’d go with Sierra Nevada pale, why, because it’s a classic! Maybe considered the original in modern times. 

I guess the only thing I don’t like about it is the crystal oxidised taste you get with it, I don’t get it all the time but I’d say it comes from mistreatment of the product on the trip over and storage from there before purchase. Every time I have one, I say to myself, this is just good beer.

Another thing I like about the brewery is that they are environmentally conscious. Producing their own power, treating the waste and growing their own food for the restaurant. 

The beer itself is fairly simple, 92% Pale malt 8% crystal, cascade hops and white labs 001 Chico strain yeast. 

Simples yeah????? Well........apparently.......

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Where's the Perle and Magnum they use in it? That one is one of my favorites as well. Must do another batch soon. 

Another one I like a lot is 4 Pines pale ale. Consistently decent, goes down easily. The pricks changed the labels a bit ago but before that they listed Cascade, Citra, simcoe and Amarillo as the hops. I have a clone recipe on the desktop, so will have to give that a go too 

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American Pale Ales to me are a beer with a message and that message is avoid ... not a fan at all of the New World hops ...  like so many things American they do it in excess and the strong citrus/grapefruit and passion fruit flavours in American Style Ales are just over the top ... Americans have this obsession of taking something that is great as it is and trying to make it there own they do it with dog breeds, American Staffordshire Bull terrier (exactly where is Staffordshire in America) and they do it with beers and the hops they have created over the last 50 years  while pleasant in balanced quantities are used with far to heavy a hand in their Pale Ales ...  Cascade is a hop i like least. Centennial I use in ales as a dry hop to balance European hops I use in FO  and I have also used Amarillo ...  for  mine American Pale Ales I have experienced lack finesse ...  maybe they are for a younger demographic ...  

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They probably came about originally as a reaction against all the bland crap. They were one of the first craft styles I got into and I still love them. I don't think they're aimed at any age bracket, go to any beer fest and there are people of all ages enjoying them. 

I don't find them over the top, in most cases anyway. The best ones to me have a good malt backbone, firm bitterness and a decent fruity flavour and aroma, but all in balance with each other. I don't like NEIPAs, because they just taste like carbonated fruit juice, and don't look much better. 

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I'm 4 Pines fan in summer. I like Sierra a lot but at the price, it's the sort of beer that pushed me towards home brew. The craft beer explosion is also built around APAs and I've giving up trying new ones, there's a lot of average out there.

As Marty rightly says, too many are going right over the edge with citrus to stand out and brewing beerzillas like IIIIPAs. I prefer a bit of restraint and balance.

Squires Hop Thief was really good in the earlier versions, but seems to have got blander, which is odd, given how the market (and other brewers) has gone hop crazy.

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My go to is probably hard to pick but can get it to a top 5 ( I like doing top fives in everything - music, food etc)

Adnams Ghost ship 

4 pines pale ale

Gage Roads Little Dove

Gage Roads Atomic

Colonial Pale Ale

Most of the beers I really like usually have Citra in them.

 Before I  started brewing I probably had a similar view as Marty but now I love the new world hops!

Can’t seem to take the NEIPAs or the Sours yet though- don’t know if I ever will., but PA, IPA and IIPAs I can drink every day

Cheers

James

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10 minutes ago, NewBrews said:

If you had of said Coopers Pale, then I might believe you 😂

I love my Coopers but we're talking APAs! My uncle reckons the West End Red Tins are the nectar of the gods. He's definitely an old school South Aussie. 

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6 hours ago, The Captain!! said:

Hmmm maybe it is really all cascade.......

I thought it had some magnum and peels in it too but no.?

What greeny said except the commercial one isn't dry hopped. I notice on their website that the hops are listed as only Cascade, they used to have Magnum and Perle listed as well which I guess is why most of the clone recipes have them included. 

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1 hour ago, Greeny1525229549 said:

Interesting. You would think using all cascade would smash there profit margins. They would be using much less overall hops using magnum and perle compared to all cascade.

I’m also guessing that the amount of cascade they would need compared to magnum cost wise may offset that due to shear amount purchased? 

Maybe not at that level. 

I could imagine they don’t pay anywhere near what Homebrewers pay per g for hops. 

Now hop selection would be an amazing thing to be part of. 

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10 hours ago, porschemad911 said:

I really liked Matilda Bay Alpha, but that seems to be long gone.

So now probably BentSpoke Crankshaft. Which I believe they call a West Coast IPA, but is definitely not. It is a great West Coast Pale Ale though. 

Cheers, 

John 

The Alpha was an awesome beer. It’s a shame it has gone but it probably would have been watered down by CUB so perhaps it is a good thing.

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