Hale and Hearty

Today's review is a fine example of "What has it got in its fridge, my precious?" Well, at the moment, I've got a pale ale from Hale's Ales of Seattle. This one is a standard issue 12 oz bottle acquired from Costco for my house-warming party. Hale's is an old (by microbrewery standards, anyway) business, around since 1983. It claims to be bottle conditioned, and looking at the bottom of the bottle that appears to be correct. Bottle conditioning is bottling the beer while the yeast is still slightly active, allowing it to carbonate naturally. It can result in a slightly more mature flavour, but can give uneven carbonation and if you're not careful it can result in a cloudy beer. The key sign to look for is a thin layer of yeast on the bottom of the bottle.

The colour of Hale's pale is a medium amber, almost orange, and slightly cloudy--a result of the bottle conditioning. The head subsides quickly, although high carbonation is quite visible. The aroma is...odd. There are hops there, and a bit of malt, but also a slight cider scent. The cidery scent is probably because it's been in the bottle for a while, and Costco doesn't refrigerate their beer--cidery is an age-related off flavour.

The flavour is actually pretty well balanced. There's enough malt sweetness to cut the sting of the hops, although the after taste is pretty much all hop--feels a bit rough on the tongue. Carbonation might be a touch high, but that can happen to any beer. As I said above, bottle conditioning can be a bit hit-or-miss with the carbonation, and any bottled beer will be more highly carbonated than the same beer on tap--that's a limitation of bottling machines. Any bottling machine tends to strip carbonation as the bottle fills, so bottled beers are highly carbonated to compensate.

As the beer goes down, a nice thin layer of lace is left on the sides of the glass; very pretty, and a good indicator of protein content. The beer flavour doesn't change much as the beer warms, but the cidery smell does...which is completely natural as those flavour components are fairly volatile.

All in all, a drinkable but not outstanding beer. It'd be much better on tap, or from a properly-stored bottle. Costco: sometimes you do get what you pay for.