Sebastian Lipsett says "Arrr!" after a Cutthroat Pale ale.
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Cutthroat Pale ale review
Submitted
by Sebastian
Lipsett
Last weekend the girlfriend and I
decided to make the only
rational choice we could... we had to somehow incorporate gold-panning
and
fishing into a camping trip. And beer was there.
Now, I was informed a while back that if I wanted to keep my job brewing, I would have to write a 'darn-fine review' of one of my brewery's beers.
It stands to reason, then, that I chose to bring along a beer that I love to drink. Tree Brewing's Cutthroat Pale ale is one such beer.
Accross the table, I find the Pale ale category to be slightly ambiguous. If an ale does not fit into the Brown, IPA, Amber, or Red Ale label, it is simply lumped into the 'Pale Ale' tub. That adds up to an awfull lot of lumping, with colours ranging from yellow through amber, right up to just off brown; and hop aroma and IBU's all over the board as well.
Over the years, I
have ended up taking a middle-ground stance on Pale ales. I need a definite
malty taste, mild to strong bitterness and a noticeable hop aroma.
That last
one is clutch.
Colour is not so important to me though, because mostly I'm there for the taste.
Back to my story. We loaded up the car with as much crap as we could muster, exactly one hour behind schedule (there was a surprise last-minute brewery tour).
Direction? North, by north-west into the hills and up a deactivated logging road in the Mission Creek watershed. The mosquitos seemed to love us as much as we loved the spot we found, in a nice little clearing within earshot of the creek. We had wicked-awesome food, beer and sleeps under the backwoods canopy.
By 8am we were trecking down the side of a hill towards the creek, and about 25 minutes later we arrived scratched, abused and slightly confused as to how a creek can sound so close and yet be so far away? But our confusion quickly evaporated as we took in the flowing water of Mission Creek. The girlfriend dug into the riverbank with her pan, while I dug into the bag to start into my beer (after all, by this time it was after 11am in Ontario and that, my friends, is beer time.)
Despite the early hour, it was already 20C outside, approaching a high of 36C in the afternoon. I was in dire need of refreshment. The thing I love most about Cutthroat Pale ale is the very first impression upon opening the bottle. Your first quaff is absolutely loaded with flavour.
Aroma hops burst into your mouth and pave the way for the ever-so-smooth malty finish. The balance is key though. This Pale ale doesn't reach 20 IBU's and is therefore easily enjoyed by most palates. By adding a generous dose of aroma hops at the end of the boil, we avoid the bitterness, but enjoy all of the flavour the hops can give.
The careful blend of five different malts also lend to the pleasing finish that just makes you want more. From the first taste to the last sip, you can enjoy a flavourful and smooth beer. The colour comes in a little more golden than amber, which helps to ensure that your visual taste is almost as enjoyable as when the sweet, sweet beer is in your mouth.
Oh yeah... the gold-panning! Despite our best efforts (a good half-hour), the river proved as stingy with gold as it did with fish, but I did catch a couple of Cutthroat Pale ales along the way; having a glacier-fed stream to keep them cold was more than enough to make this man one happy camper.
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