有時候，混一堆酒花在麥芽體質薄的釀造上並不一定是件美事，我覺得… 像這裡，便是一款不太均衡，但仍舊苦味集中、且酒花混和果味十足的仿 American Pale Ale~~ 只是，有點失焦、變調了...

The Kernel, Pale Ale (4C), 5.6%abv. (American Pale Ale)

Purchased at the Kernel Brewery in London; bottle-conditioned in a 500ml brown bottle, bottled on 26/02/13, BB 26/06/13, served lightly chilled in a straight imperial pint glass. The back label specifies what 4C means: four different hop varieties are used, being Columbus, Chinook, Centennial, and Citra.

3.5/5 Appearance: pours a dark amber hue, murky in texture, coming with rather mild carbonation and a well-lasting off-white frothy head.

4/5 Smell: sweet orange and grapefruity citric aroma comes hand in hand with quite sweet and yet lightly stinky pale malts with a hint of melted sugar. A very good swirl gives rise to ripe guava, ripened gooseberries, exotic white grapey esters, etc., even a tad green-mango-ish, helping to lift the overall aroma by a good margin and making it smell a bit less sweet.

4/5 Taste: almost creamy and very lightly effervescent on the palate, the foretaste, being exotic, citric, mixed-fruity hoppy, comes slightly “green-ish” surprisingly, not showing a sound balance or perhaps the maltiness just seems to pale in front of the hoppiness; a wave of tangy citrus-peel-ish and citrus-seed-ish tannic bitterness soon prevails, leading towards a very long finish where my palate also picks up random phenolic & sour-bitter yeastiness as well as “semi-stinky” & gristy English pale malts.

4/5 Mouthfeel: the mouthfeel is generally refreshing and never too lively, as witnessed by the soft carbonation on the palate, while the body remains consistently light to medium, against a predominantly hoppy flavour profile.

4/5 Overall: Again, to label this an American Pale Ale would be somewhat “unconventional”, as most APAs I’ve tried seem to come with a bit more malt body, flavour and colour, whereas this ale is really very hoppy and bitter by its abv., showing an imbalance b/w malts and hops, almost like an over-hopped English Blond Bitter. That said, this is yet another tasty experimental product from the Kernel Brewery, although I can’t predict when this experiment will come to maturation and help them decide which version deserves a permanent status, esp. when every brewing assistant gets the chance to invent one version at a time…

--Yau (28/03/2013)