name: Organic Pale Ale
brewery: Laurelwood Brewing Co.
% alc: 5.1
type: Pale Ale
vendor: Whole Foods, Seattle
price: $3.99 (22oz Bottle)
first impressions:
It smells delicious. It smells like flowers in an alpine forest, piney, floral hops. It tastes like it smells but is finished with a toasty malt flavor and touch of sweet. It's amazing. The way a flower looks and smells when it first blooms. Such an organic beautiful creation.
But then it begins to wilt, it begins to fade. Just as organic things are more likely to fall away back into the earth, this ale seems to lose its initial perfection. Sadly, halfway through my glass I can't taste it all that much anymore. Aroma hops but not flavor hops? Does this opening scene waft away in to the atmosphere. At this point the beer certainly isn't decayed it just isn't what it was.
I think Laurelwood does tremendous things with their hops. They put out a nearly endless supply of seasonal IPAs each one fresher and tastier than the last and I didn't see that fail in this ale. Where it fails is in it's inability to maintain the initial balance. It's a promise vowed that means the world and doesn't quite pan out the way you expected. A dream come true after so much anticipation that you just end up feeling numb halfway through it's realisation.
review (/10): 7.5
recommended setting: Head on down to Portland for the weekend, or up or over, depending on where you are reading this from. Laurelwood has a brewpub in the Hollywood District where you can hopefully grab a pint of this while it lasts. And after you experience this fleeting bliss, grab an IPA like Hop Monkey and treat your tongue to those hops it has been missing since your first taste of Organic Pale Ale.
extraneous ramble (optional):
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