New England Brewing Pale Ale

Rating:

19511323_714283592089122_190517218999936281_n“The New Englander Pale Ale is an example of a classic American pale ale. With a creamy white head and brilliant colour, the aroma presents hints of fruits like mango, grapefruit, and passionfruit, while an earthy and resinous flavour and moderate bitterness finish things off.”

Served in a shaker. This pale ale from New England pours a deep honey amber with a short cap emerging on top. Head retention is average as it peels off to a fine film with patchy lace work as it ebbs.
Certainly a well balanced aroma. Picking up a robust and somewhat sweet caramel malt base underneath a fruity/spicy hop profile. It’s not overflowing with fruity sweetness but there’s enough to offer a mix of mango, peach, rockmelon and hints of apricot. Nothing overly memorable here but it’s OK all the same.
The mouth feel is smooth and slightly frothy in texture. Moderate body with a mild bitterness (36 IBU) developing on the rear. Co2 offers a pleasant consistency.
Flavour-wise it’s providing a good overall balance but it seems to fall short on wow factor. It all seems a bit too restrained. Hints of some tropical fruit are intermittent at best with the semi sweet malts making a dash to the finish which finally reveals some piney and spicy hop characters in the tail.
Just your standard Aussie pale ale here folks. It bangs us up to say it but Aussie hops just don’t cut the mustard when it comes to hop forward beers. For us, this sits somewhere between an English bitter and an Aussie pale ale. It’s got good session ability with a nice balance but that’s where it ends.