Lagunitas - New Dogtown Pale
Brewery: Lagunitas
Type: Pale Ale
ABV: 6.4% (according to BA
Quaff date: 03/15/09
Poured at: Casa Muerte
Drunk from: Pint Glass
Here’s one from mid-March. Half a season ago. Is it irresponsible to post a review from a beer drunk so long ago? I’ve had a few more since then, even. My take on reviewing from month-and-a-half old notes: this past Tuesday I was at The Trappist, to noone’s surprise. They had a bottle special - Kapittel ABT - that intrigued me. I thought, Hmm, I bet that’s a nice dark one, like St. Bernardus 12. I asked Ray about it - if he’d had it, how the bottles were. He looked at me sort of sideways, like something wasn’t right. Turns out, he was pretty sure he’d had it once before, shared from a bottle I bought. Hmm… didn’t sound right. I had no memory of the whole thing. So I bought one, Ray poured it. Whoah - looks like a strong blonde. “I didn’t think it would be so light,” I said. “That’s exactly what you said last time.” So that was probably me, happily tasting a brand new beer then promptly forgetting about it. It’s the drinking - every time I’m trying something new at The Trappist, I’m drinking. And that makes it all blur together. So I’m trying to keep track of what I’ve had, what I’ve thought of it, and then how my preference/taste has changed since the first time. Very narcissistic.
Lagunitas Pale, I used to think, was pretty boring. Loved the IPA (my intro to super hopped beer), but I remember the pale being… shit, I don’t really remember it. Then Lagunitas changed the recipe a year or two back, and suddenly it’s a great pale, with enough hop bitterness to delight, but bordering on great with the delicious hop flavor and aroma. So here are my notes on it:
Pours golden with a thick, white, quickly dissipating head (they all dissipate quickly in my glassware, it seems). A sweet malt and hop aroma. Bitter, delicious hop flavor, seems like Centennial or Columbus to me (those hops that make Pliny taste a little earthy and basil-ish). The malt’s a bit subdued behind the hops at first, but comes out as the beer warms, a nice cereal/grain flavor. Jen would say it’s a session beer for alcoholics.