Thursday, November 6, 2014

New Growth Pale Ale by Driftwood

One of the purposes of a blog is to educate. I must think of something because this beer review is going to be very short. Let's talk about hops. This is the first time I have seen the Newport hop used. It might be used but no brewery has mentioned it. Newport is a hop developed by the USDA as a mildew resistant substitute for Galena. If I remember correctly Vancouver Island Brewery uses Galena. Newport is a mix of Brewers Gold, Hallertauer M, Late Grape, Belgium 31 and Fuggles. Rogue uses this hop quite a bit; its in XS Imperial I2PA, Santa's Reserve, Dad's little helper black IPA and more. Which makes sense because all these beer are bitter as @#$#. This bitterness is due to a very high alpha acid content present in Newport. So how did the beer that some people are referring to as 'Diet Tug' or 'Tug Lite' taste?

New Growth = 6/10

Spicy and pine flavours are the order of the day. That's it. It reminded me of nasturtium. There is a little cracker and white bread malts. This brew is quite bitter and peppery. I found it a little bitter for a pale ale, but it is suitable for our PNW desires.

Taste +_3
Aftertaste +1
Alcohol Content 0  5%ABV
Value +1 (worth the price)
Appearance +1 (nice label art)

Glassware: Whatever you got. Just as long as it is clean, right Brian?

Food Pairings: This is quite difficult to pair as it is very piney and bitter. Might be nice to counter with mango sweetness and fatty shrimp. Go for the uber-bitter-party with an arugula salad with blue cheese.

Cellar: Might be interesting because Newport has a good beta hop content, but malt complexity is lacking.

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