For today’s craft beer review I’m going to be trying the Southern Tier Pale produced by the Southern Tier Brewing Company located in Lakewood, New York.

As you guys well know, Southern Tier makes some outstanding stuff, so I’m hoping that this brew is more of the same.

From the website, southerntierbrewing.com, we find this description of the Pale.

Our Pale is an aggressively hopped, with immense overtones of grapefruit and tangerine wrapped in a delicately refined body of pale barley and wheat.

Let’s sip.

The Pale comes in a standard 12 oz. bottle and it has an ABV of 6.1%.

This beer poured a hazy, golden/yellow color with some bright yellow (almost white gold) highlights at the bottom.  The collar was white and of decent size.  It was smooth and creamy and held its shape for a decent amount of time.  Some clingy lacing stuck to the sides of the glass for a few moments before eventually falling back into the beer to leave a thin skim on top of the liquid for the remainder of the drink.

The aroma smelled of grapefruit and orange citrus mixed with some sweet, sugary malts.  Something similar to caramel candies.  Some light floral aspects were detected, but it also seemed quite herbal and earthy too.  I noticed a slight “creamed corn” fragrance deep within the bouquet as well.  It wasn’t very strong or robust, yet it was sturdy enough for me to take notice.  Pretty decent nose on this beer.

Within the taste I, again, picked up on that “creamed corn” aspect.  It tasted like the thickening (flour and corn broth) that people use when they make “creamed” sweet corn.  Once I got past that I stumbled upon savors of grapefruit and orange citrus, a light caramel sweetness and a dollop of honey.  Overall, a suitable bit of hop bite and bitterness to satisfy me.  The herbal distinction wasn’t really noticed until after the brew warmed quite a bit.  I was not able to detect any sort of wheat or breadiness like was mentioned in the description.  I guess my palate is broken or something.    

The mouthfeel was medium bodied, dry, slightly sticky and smooth.  The carbonation seemed ok and an honorable amount of flavor was left covering the roof of the mouth and the tongue after the swallow.

Well.  I thought this was a pretty good beer.  It wasn’t quite as “clean” as I thought it might be, but it was still ok.  It’s an easy drinker for sure and it would pair excellently with the Spring and Summer weather.  It had enough aroma and flavor to keep me interested for the session and even though the “corn” characteristic was a bit unique, it wasn’t off putting or obtuse.  I can’t say that I think the Southern Tier Pale is as good as some of the other Pale Ale’s I’ve tried before, however I would drink it again if it were offered and would recommend that you guys do the same if you happen to run across it.

Thanks for reading and commenting folks.  I appreciate it.

Until next time.  Cheers.

Score:  3.7 out of 5
Grade:  B