There is a bunch of rambling jibberish on the side of the can about X this and XX that. Basically from what we can gather it’s an obvious collaboration between the above, and this is a pale ale..with some extra.
Poured into a shaker glass we see a cloudy straw/dark yellow brew that’s teeming with carbonation. There is a nice big 15mm cloudy white head that retains beautifully and basically doesn’t budge. It almost looks over carbonated but we can’t see a date anywhere. Aromas of cereal malts, bready dough/yeast, light caramels, citrus like lemon and some pine. Faint tropical notes here also. The flavour is tasty. It’s smooth on the palate, with decent bitterness for a pale ale. Nic drying effect. Carbonation sizzles away on the tongue. We get more flavours of citrus, grape/wine like hops now coming through, with more doughy yeast, and some pine. Good length on the palate. Body is medium and very do-able. We note Alc vol of 5.6% and it certainly is much stronger than say a Balter XPA. We note plenty of lacing down the glass. We get right at the end a bit of spice on the tonsils. Overall this is a tasty drop. We get a mixture of classic pine/citrus and American style mild tropical hops mixed with almost sauvin hops. We take umbrage though with this XPA category. Where does it end? Is it simply a stronger brewed pale ale or a lighter IPA. Anyhoo, tasty and refreshing.