Pale Ale is smooth and sweet from start to finish | The Triangle

Pale Ale is smooth and sweet from start to finish

Troegs Anthology No. 1 variety pack, featuring a six-pack each of Dream Weaver unfiltered wheat, Pale Ale, Sunshine Pils pilsner and HopBack Amber American amber ale, has been the theme of my summer reviews. I love all these beers and almost always have one of these variety packs in my fridge because it has something for just about everyone. This week marks the last in the series, the Pale Ale, which Troegs describes the as an American pale ale, aggressively hopped with Cascade and balanced with crystal malts.

Troegs Brewing Co. was founded by the Trogner brothers in late 1996 and sold its first keg of beer July 18, 1997. The original brewery was located in downtown Harrisburg, Pa., and it did not have an attached pub, which is unusual for a microbrewery in the U.S. The demand for their beer expanded quickly, and Troegs broke ground on a new 90,000-square-foot facility in Hershey, Pa. This facility is constructed in a rather unique manner with a large window-lined hallway running through the brewhouse. This allows visitors to take self-guided tours during the hours of 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. The new facility also boasts a 5,000-square-foot tasting room and sells the brewery’s famous scratch beers.

Troegs recommends pairing the Pale Ale with Mediterranean food, starches and anything with fresh herbs in it. They also note that the floral hop character blends well with cheesy dishes like pizza, pasta and dips — basically, classic bar food and summer barbecue sides. This beer should be served in a pint glass.

The beer poured a dead clear, light gold color with no chill haze. The head formed as two fingers of moderately fine, creamy off-white foam, which had a pillowy character more familiar to Belgian than to American beers. The head retention was fairly good and left a decent amount of lacing as well. The aroma was a fairly sweet maltiness with fairly low levels of yeast and hop bitterness, but the sweetness definitely dominated. The body, accentuated by the low carbonation, was moderately thick and gave a fairly creamy mouthfeel compared to most pale ales. The taste was sweet the whole way through, although balanced with a hop bitterness. The finish lingered a bit, featuring both the malty sweetness and the bitterness. Overall, it was smooth and fairly balanced but with distinctive flavors from both hops and malt.

I enjoyed this beer, which would be perfect for a Labor Day barbecue. The flavor profile is similar to the HopBack Amber, but it’s throttled down enough so that you can keep drinking it all day. I recommend grabbing one of these packs for your festivities this weekend, as it’s a quality variety of beer with something for everyone.

Price: $2.50

Size: 12 oz

ABV: 5.4 percent

Aroma: 4/5

Appearance: 4.5/5

Taste: 4/5

Mouthfeel: 3.5/5