Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

Econ_guy was nice enough to give me a couple of bottles of beer when I picked up rhyzomes from him last week.  Besides getting a tour of his home brewery, which was really neat (he stores and ages some of his beer and had a nice kegging set up), we had a very nice conversation and I enjoyed learning about his interest in homebrewing.  One of the bottles of beer he gave me was his Belgian Pale Ale.  I am not that familiar with the style, but I thought I would jot my observations down.

The ale poured with a course white head, that dissipated over 3 or 4 minutes.  It has a hazy dark orange head and smelled of dark fruit and mild hops.  There was a smell I could not quite place, maybe of a mild citrus, not a strong as oranges, but present in the background.  The taste was great, there was a mild carbonation prickling on the tongue, which was enough to get your attention.  I tasted some brown sugar, though not sweet, as the beer finishes dry, which I am told good belgians should do.  There was also a hint of a spice of some sort, maybe coriander, but I bet this comes from the yeast, rather than being added.  There was a malt character in the taste too, but it was on the back part of the tongue.

A very tasty and drinkable ale.  Well done Econ_Guy.

Nice.  Your description makes me want to brew a Belgian!  Man, wish I had one but I drank it all.