22 July 2015 - Best Beer HQ
Galbraith’s New American Style Pale Ale review
ABV: 5.2%
The bottle: Galbraith’s New American Style Pale Ale looks like a classy beer – judging purely by the simple, but quality-looking label on its 500ml bottle. Look at that picture (above) – it could be a wine label.
However, this beer will teach me a valuable lesson about reading the label of a beer more carefully. What am I talking about? Don’t be so impatient – read on and find out.
What it says on the bottle: On a fact finding (beer drinking) trip to Southern California, we discovered an American Pale Ale less dominated by hops, but still with bags of flavour and character. A style we knew we had to recreate here.
Crafted at Galbraith’s Alehouse by master brewers inspired by the past.
Galbraith’s: Galbraith’s is an alehouse and craft beer brewer in Auckland, New Zealand.
“Our alehouse is at the heart of our beers. This is where we practice what we preach. Creating beers, not with tricks and gimmicks but with good quality ingredients, using authentic methods. Just honest beer.” – Keith Galbraith, beer purist and pub owner.
Tastes like: A bitter disappointment, but it’s not actually that disappointing because at least you’re drinking beer.
You see, I should have paid more attention to the blurb on the bottle. If I had, I would have noticed that Galbraith’s New American Style Pale Ale is an APA that’s less dominated by hops. I was hoping for a hoppy APA when I purchased it from my local Glengarry.
So it’s my fault that I was disappointed with this beer, because otherwise there’s a lot to like here. It boasts a delicious aroma of grassy hops, caramel, hint of pine, with a medium-strong bitterness that lingers.
Despite having its hops dialled right back, this beer has enough complexity to keep you interested.
Is it the best beer ever? It’s another respectable beer from Galbraith’s, an alehouse and micro brewer in Grafton, Auckland.
While the New American Style Pale Ale won’t set the world on fire, it’s a fairly sessionable beer to help you whittle away an afternoon or evening.
What else should I drink? For me, this beer wasn’t too dissimilar to Sam Adams’ Boston Lager, which is a very enjoyable lager. Meanwhile, Liberty Brewing’s Oh Brother Pale Ale is the sort of APA I was really looking for when I bought this bottle of Galbraith’s New American Style Pale Ale – check out my review here.