10 May 2017 - Best Beer HQ
Wigram Mustang Pale Ale Review
I purchased a bottle of Wigram Brewing’s Mustang Pale Ale from my local liquor store on a lazy Saturday afternoon, and I drank it on my couch, in the sun, while I read a shitty Dean Koontz novel about a magical golden Labrador.
Now that I’ve set the scene for you, let’s take a closer look at this particular beer by Wigram Brewing – only the second of the Christchurch brewery’s beers that I’ve ever tried (check out my review of the Wigram Honey Ale).
ABV: 5%
Blurb on the bottle: Mustang APA is our hand-crafted ale with intense hop bitterness, character and aroma derived from superb New Zealand hops and malt. Hop bitterness is typically in the range of 40-50 IBU. The rich copper colour is derived from imported specialty ale malts to give a beer with a colour of around 20-25EBC.
Tastes like: Like the writings of Dean Koontz (a poor-man’s Stephen King if you ask me), I’m not wowed by it right away. Even at 5%ABV, it’s awfully restrained for an American pale ale called ‘Mustang’, almost timid, perhaps even a little bit bland.
It may have been how it was stored, or, more likely, the rough way I carried it home in a black plastic bag, but the beer frothed out of the bottle as I poured it. As a result, a thick white head hung over the amber liquid. It certainly smelled nice and hoppy.
But this beer just doesn’t grow on me as I drink more of it.
The verdict: Though Wigram’s Mustang Pale Ale looks nice, smells nice, and tastes perfectly pleasant, it’s just a wee bit mediocre in my humble opinion. In fact, at the risk of irritating some of my older readers, it’s an old-man’s beer; mild, mellow, easy to drink, but fairly boring.
Beer/movie combination: No Country for Old Men. Not because this movie is mediocre (on the contrary, it’s very good), or that it’s even a movie for old people, but because of the themes running through the film – moral decline and as men get older, the world keeps changing, until it might seem virtually unrecognisable to the one they grew up in.
In other words, the world will eventually pass me by, and I’ll bet some jackass who hasn’t even been born yet will one day call the beers I like “old man beers”.