The hop aroma is bright and clear, loaded with mango and juicy citrus. The malt aroma is lightly toasty and crisp. I did detect a faint amount of DMS in the aroma. Visually the beer is extremely appealing with a deep golden color, and a light haze which I suspect would be from dry hopping based on the bright hop aroma. The head was low and faded fairly fast. The flavor closely matches the aroma with bright mango and citrus flavor from the hops, a nice supporting toasty malt flavor, and fairly clean overall profile. This pale ale has a nice smooth refined bitterness that I personally prefer over the stiff bracing bitterness in some other hoppy styles. The beer is medium bodied and has a fair amount of carbonation. In the sea of over hopped beers competing for you attention this beer could easily get lost in all the hype and fruited hoppy beers. But honestly you'll be missing out on a solid gem of a beer. There is no special ingredient added to get your attention, no special malts, or gimmicky flavors. I find that refreshing. Just a solid well-made American pale ale.
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Upland Harvest Ale
An American Pale Ale by design, but an even more vibrant rendition by loading up our hopback with freshly harvested Citra hops. Expect huge wafts of tropical fruit notes, balanced by a moderate bitterness and light tasted malt character. A showcase for one of our four favorite ingredients and a delight for all the hopheads.
Upland Harvest Ale is a very dank brew. The aroma has strong dank notes dominated by a Simcoe-like hop character. A few fruity esters are noted, as is a light grassiness presumably from the wet-hopping used in this brew. Visually, this moderately carbonated, very clear, golden-colored brew has a solid small-bubbled white head with lace. The flavor has moderate hop bitterness along with the expected dank hop flavor. Interestingly, there is quite a bit of bubble gum ester character in the flavor – much more than expected considering the aroma. The malt backbone is quite subtle, with the body of this brew becoming quite thin from the middle through to the finish. This is most definitely a hop-forward brew, but overall, it is somewhat one-dimensional. More complexity in hop and malt would be appreciated, but this is still a nice effort.