Capitol City Pale Rider Ale

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Taps clear golden amber with a minimal eggshell head. Aroma delivers subtle malty character - nothing else. Give it a chance. Flavor far exceeds the aroma, strongly evergreen hops and fresh malt plus a citrus underpinning. Mouthfeel offers decent body and jazzy fizz. Pale rider, pale beer.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

A slighly above average draught beer available in the DC area. A clear rust coloured beer with a thin head. sweet malt, butterscotch, and floral hops made up the aroma for me. The flavour is slightly sweet, grainy, with a bitter finish. Quite refreshing and easy to drink.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

An orange beer with a thin lazing beige head. The aroma is sweet with strong notes of fruit - amongst them notes of oranges. The flavor is sweet and rather hoppy, leading to a dry crisp toffee end with a good bitterness.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Quite a nice English-type ale. This is great for a first - or last - beer of the day. Great flavor. I'd say that it's among my favorite English Ales. Not too malty or hoppy - good balance.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 6

Clear amber with a another great head retention and lacing. This is obviously one of the brewpubs that specialized in pretty beers. Mandarin orange and pine in the aroma from the hops. Juicy, almost peachlike. Hops remain juicy fruit in the flavor. Really tasty actually. Good malt balance but remains hop focused.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Ho huh Poured a orange color. Aroma was of pine but not overwelming. Solid lacing. Flavor was weak pine and citrus. Not a good beer. Mouthfeel was a little thin.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Just another pale ale. In fact, this one lacked any balance in it and the malty base was hard to enjoy. Poured an orange-yellow color with pretty carbonated bubbles readily rising to the surface. Aroma was of light pines. Great lacing. Pine and citrus in the flavor but strong hop finish was overpowering. Not very drinkable, beer after beer. Boring (the style is too).

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

(Said to be an English Pale Ale, but that's certianly not what I ended up getting in my pint glass).

On-tap at the Capitol Hill location, after a long day of doing the sites up and down The Mall.

I followed up the "just okay" Amber Waves Ale with this American Pale Ale -- a rather typical progression (style-wise) for me when I first check out a brewpub. If I had more time -- and if the brewpub had it, of course -- I would have gone to an IPA and/or Double IPA after this one. But after two (and only) two beers from the Capitol City Brewing Company, that was enough for me.

Basically, the problem with the Amber was that it was just too hoppy for the style -- not enough malt enough to back up all those hops in the boil.

And the problem with the Pale Rider? Not enough hops for the malt bill and alcohol. With the sturdy malt body and the ABV%, I could probably accept the rawness of the hops that I noticed first-hand with the Amber. But both the Amber and the Pale seem perhaps a little "unpolished".

All that having been said, I still thought this was the better beer of the two. Rather old-school with the hops (with the brewpub born in 1992, that fits with the "Cascade = Happiness" mantra).... "Citrusey", though I would have liked a bit "more" on that front -- both "more hops" and perhaps "more variety" in the hop bill. Weren't Mt Hood and/or Willamette popular hops back in `92? Anyway, let's just leave at "hop bill could use some tweaking".

Other than that, no real complaints. Mouthfeel is sturdy (and cleaner than was the case in the Amber), and went well enough with my basic fish&chips platter. Unlike the Amber, I probably would give this one another honest go-around (if/when I ever hit one of the Capitol City Brewing Co. locations again).

A basic Pale Ale, no less, no more.
//TB