“When you spot a pintail headed towards the beach, odds are the surf is way up. And where this board provides balance on big waves, Pintail Pale Ale brings balance to big hops. We wanted to brew a session beer with huge hop flavors, so we created Pintail – a dry-hopped pale ale from the West Coast.”
There is no need to question why this beer was a 2011 gold medal winner. We’ve tried this beer numerous times and we can’t believe we still hadn’t done a review on it. Served in an IPA glass the deep golden orange pour boasts clarity with gorgeous copper red hues. Atop this liquid beauty sits a tight 1 inch head that retains. Laced well. Instantly the olfactory is met with big citric notes of grapefruit, orange peel, lychee and resinous pine. Good depth is being shown here with hints of peach, caramel, malt and a touch of mango to boot. Mouthfeel is slightly fizzy and full bodied with medium carbonation and a vibrant bitterness (47 IBU). Flavour is very similar to the aroma with fresh citric grapefruit upfront. This couples very well with the grassy Amarillo hops and resinous pine. The mid-palate does balance out with a soft malt profile but its back to big citric hops and a dry bitterness to finish. 5.3% ABV is spot on and although it’s slightly weaker than most APA’s it creates that good platform for all the flavours to go to work on. Brilliant beer, and the price it’s going for does not reflect the absolute quality inside the bottle. A truly top notch APA, we can not fault it.