Camerons Motörhead Röad Crew

I love Camerons beers so when I saw this American pale ale, brewed in collaboration with British rock band Motörhead, I just had to try it and I was pretty impressed.

It has a traditional beery appearance; a deep golden clear ale with a small, loose, off-white head that retains a thin layer.  It smells incredibly hoppy with some fruit notes and a hint of (heavy) metal.

The taste is really nice and very well balanced.  Tangy hops combine with sweet caramel to tingle your taste buds and a citrus bitterness provides the big finish.  It has a medium body and it's very fizzy.

It's a very tasty, tangy and refreshing APA with a bitter kick.  I don't drink APAs very often but next time I fancy one, Ale Be Seeing Röad Crew again.

Brewed by Camerons Brewery, Hartlepool
5% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 3.5/5

Find out more at Camerons Brewery

Powderkeg Speak Easy

 

Speak Easy is an American pale ale from Devon brewers, Powerkeg.  It pours a beautiful deep golden colour with an orange hue and a small but tight cream coloured head that started forming the second the lid was popped.  The head is very robust and leaves some nice lacing on the glass.

It smells very citrusy with an underlying aroma of sweet malt and tangy hops.  Surprisingly, the flavour isn't predominantly citrus; the dry-hopping gives it a dry and fresh hoppy taste with slight caramel sweetness and there's just a hint of citrus in the dry bitter finish.

Very refreshing, medium bodied and not too fizzy, this is a lovely afternoon beverage and Ale Be Seeing You again!

Brewed by Powderkeg Brewery, Devon
4.3% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 3.75/5

Find out more at Powderkeg Brewery

Brew York Brew York

 

I picked up this vegan friendly triple hopped American Pale Ale a couple of years ago because I was tickled by the name but since then Brew York have taken off and become well known for brewing innovative and extremely unusual beers.

Just look at the head on that!  It's immense!  The cream coloured head is quite loose but there's lots of it so it doesn't vanish in a flash and it does lace the glass.  It sits atop a hazy orange-hued golden beer that is so vibrant it reminded me of the fiery colours of the setting sun.

It has an enticing smell of citrus and hops which transfer to the taste along with a hint of tropical fruit and caramel.  Well balanced, it's deliciously bittersweet with caramel infused citrus bubbles bursting on the tongue to produce a cream soda like flavour with a dry, bitter finish.  Very well carbonated (how could it not be to produce such an impressive head) and medium bodied, it's so easy to drink that it's a shame it was just in a 330ml can.

Brew York was my first Brew York beer and it certainly wasn't my last as I've tried a number of them since then.  I drank this in 2018 and it's possibly been rebrewed under another name by now as Brew York have a good range of vegan beers that are well worth checking out.  If it was still being produced, Ale Be Seeing You again!

Brewed by Brew York Craft Brewery, York
5.1% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 4/5

Find out more at Brew York Craft Brewery

Sainsbury's American Pale Ale

This is a beautiful looking beer; it's a rich, deep amber colour with a frothy and tight cream coloured head.  

It smells very hoppy with a hint of citrus and it tastes crisp and fruity with slightly sweet malts.  It doesn't have overly strong flavours but it sure did awaken my taste buds.  It has a medium body and decent carbonation that maintains the impressive head right to the very last drop.

It's an all round pleasant drink but nothing really out of the ordinary.  I'm glad I tried it but Ale not be Seeing You again.

Brewed by Tap Room Brewing Company, New York, USA 
5.3% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 3.25/5

Bear Republic Grand-Am

 

With a fabulous chequered flag on the label, this looks like the perfect beer to drink while watching Formula 1, although it's quite strong at 6% so I wouldn't like to drink too many of them.  

It's a deep golden beer that's so bubbly and lively it produces a huge off-white head.  I didn't think I was going to get it all in the glass!  

It has a lovely aroma of sweet juicy mango and pithy grapefruit with a hint of caramel and hops.  The flavours all transfer into the taste and it's a rather nice blend of tropical fruit, citrus fruit, caramel and malt with a slight floral hint.  The citrus aftertaste is quite strong but isn't so pithy that it's unpleasant, it just lingers a little bit too long for my liking.

It doesn't feel like a strong beer when you're drinking it, but I got a bit of a flushed face so I knew it was a strong one.  It's quite fizzy and harshly carbonated that it gives the tongue a good tingling and maintains the head right through, leaving thick lacing on the glass.

Not bad at all, I really liked the tropical fruit flavour that took the edge off the citrus.  A very pleasant American Pale Ale and I'd definitely have another one if I saw it again.  Ale Be Seeing You!

Brewed by Bear Republic Brewing Company, California, USA
6% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 3.5/5

Find out more at Bear Republic Brewing Company

Black Sheep Pathmaker

 

I am a huge fan of North Yorkshire brewery Black Sheep and consider their bitter to be one of my favourite beers of all time.  I don't hesitate to pick up anything new that they brew as you're always guaranteed a quality beer.  

Pathmaker is an American style pale ale, it's a slightly hazy golden colour with a loose frothy head. Unfortunately, it's not a standard Black Sheep head as it does dissipate to a thin layer.  It has a very strong citrus aroma but with a sweet malty edge and a hint of hops and some floral notes coming through.

I was a little worried this would be too much of a citrus flavour for me but it's not as citrusy as the smell would suggest.  It is predominantly citrus flavoured but there is a sweet malt flavour that adds a caramel sweetness to balance out the citrus.  It's fizzy with a decent body and has a dry/bitter finish.

It hasn't quite tempted me over from the dark side, but it's a lovely full-flavoured pale ale in keeping with the quality you expect from Black Sheep.

Brewed by Black Sheep Brewery, Masham, North Yorkshire

5.6% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 4.25/5

Find out more at Black Sheep Brewery

Rudgate Valkyrie

What a beautiful looking pint this is!  Valkyrie, an American pale ale, is a deep golden ale that has a slight pink tinge as it pours, as I've found with all of my Rudgate ales so far.  It has a small, loose cream coloured head that disperses to leave a thin foam layer.

The aroma is delicious; it has quite a sweet smell of hops, mouthwatering gooey caramel and soft ripe tropical fruits.  All of these smells transfer to the taste which is predominantly sweet caramel drizzled over ripe, juicy tropical fruits.  I could definitely taste passion fruit but not so much of the citrus that is mentioned on the label; as I'm not a fan of too much citrus, I certainly wasn't disappointed about that.

Valkyrie has a very soft mouthfeel, which resulted in a couple of lost points on my scorecard; it is so softly carbonated that you can hardly feel any bubbles at all.  It has a medium body but is slightly on the watery side, which isn't unexpected in an APA.

I often find American pale ales too harsh but I really liked this one; it isn't bitter at all and the sweetness level is just right.  I was surprised how much I liked the passion fruit flavour; it's very unusual and gives the ale a distinct flavour.  Well done Rudgate, Ale Be Seeing Valkyrie again when I fancy a pale ale.

Brewed by Rudgate Brewery, York
5.0% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 3.75/5

Find out more at Rudgate Brewery

Original Stormtrooper Galactic Pale Ale

May the force be with you

My second beer review for Star Wars Day is this Galactic Pale Ale from The Original Stormtrooper.  I bought this one from the amazing House of Trembling madness in York before I picked up the gift pack with glass from B&M.

This pale ale pours a traditional deep golden yellow colour with a tight off-white head.  The head holds surprisingly well for a while before dispersing to a thin foam.  The aroma isn't terribly strong but it is mainly hops, biscuit and straw with a hint of orange citrus and honey.

Moving on to the taste which disappointingly isn't that strong either.  I could only really taste hops and honey before getting a dry and bitter aftertaste.  A weak taste coupled with soft carbonation and a thin almost watery body meant it wasn't an out of this world experience at all.  It took me a while to drink it and I found that the flavour does develop slightly over time into more of a bitter which I liked.

I honestly thought I would have preferred the Galactic Pale Ale to the Lightspeed Pilsner but the pale ale was just a bit too weak on flavour for me.  Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad beer but it only just scrapes a 4 pint rating, sitting right on the fence with a score of 3.5 out of 5.

Brewed by St Peter's Brewery, Suffolk
4.2% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 3.5

Find out more at The Original Stormtrooper

Hammerton N7

With six different hops from US and New Zealand, N7 has a distinct citrus aroma and a subtle but slightly sour malt aroma.  It is a lovely deep golden colour with an amazing expanding head that I thought was going to overflow as it rushed to fill the glass and the abundant bubbles burst on the surface.  It does have some live yeast sediment so it had to poured very carefully.

It has a very very VERY citrus taste leaving a strong aftertaste of grapefruit pith.  The taste and the extreme fizziness is actually very harsh and bordering on unpleasant, but I still managed to finish it of course.

I really didn't like the taste of this but the head is amazing, it actually seemed to grow with every sip and remained thick and frothy until the last unpleasant drop was drunk.

Brewed by Hammerton, London 

5.2% ABV

My rating:

Find out more at Hammerton Brewery

Beavertown Gamma Ray American Pale Ale

This is such a funky can that I wasn't surprised when the ale burst out full of fizz and tropical fruit smells.  It has an abundant bright white head and the ale is a slightly cloudy golden colour.  It tastes intensely fruity with hints of grapefruit, pineapple and mango due to the Citra and Calypso hops - it sounds like I am describing a can of Lilt but it couldn't be more different.  

It's well named Gamma Ray as zingy citrus bubbles burst on my tongue and I felt like I had been (pleasantly) zapped with a beery taser gun.

Brewed by Beavertown, London

5.4% ABV

Find out more at Beavertown

The Park Brewery Gallows Gold

With a head that Mr Whippy would be proud of, this practically explodes out of the bottle on opening.  I was hit with amazing pineapple and tropical fruit aromas and more fizz than a bottle of champagne.  There's quite a bit of sediment in the bottle so I poured this slowly and carefully and, with that spectacular head, wouldn't have got a drop more in the glass anyway.

Surprisingly, with the abundance of bubbles, this is not a gassy beer.  It's actually crisp rather than fizzy and has a delicious golden citrus flavour; it's more grapefruit than lemon, giving it a lovely bitter aftertaste.  The colour is very rich - a deep golden/light amber that lets you know that this is a complex beer and not simply an American Pale Ale.

The thick creamy head lasts to the very last drop and clings to the glass.  Ale be seeing you again, Gallows Gold.

Brewed by The Park Brewery, Kingston upon Thames

5% ABV

Find out more about the Park Brewery