Firehouse American Pale Ale

Aroma: 5 | Appearance: 4 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 5

a very boring entry to the style on tap @Sierra Brewfest 08. i hope the pale & hefe aren’t the best they have to offer...but they are their "flagship" brews.

Aroma: 5 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Sampled in La Jolla. A nice IPA but nothing special. Taste is nice but leaves a lot to be desired. After taste is very stale. Aroma and appearance are nice and clear.

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

Pours with a deep amber body topped by a thin head with little lacing. It’s slightly sweet and malty with a note of grain and an underlying hoppiness. Light to medium bodied and watery.

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

As much as it pains me to admit, this really isn't bad.

Why the mixed-feelings? Only in that this outfit has rubbed a lot of good folks the wrong way. From eschewing the San Diego Brewer's Guild (and thus blowing-off the likes of Tom at O'Brien's, Tomme and Kirk at Pizza Port, Peter at Alesmith, Jeff at Oggi's, Yusef at Ballast Point, Chuck and Joe at Coronado, etc, etc), to under-cutting the competition with bargain-basement keg prices...., it's only small consolation that supposedly some of the profits from the sale of their beer(s) is said to go to local charities.

But putting all that aside for the time being, what's their first (flagship) beer like?

Surprisingly, not bad at all. Struck me as more of a hopped-up Red Ale than a by-the-numbers American Pale Ale. That is to say, the appearence and malt-bill reminded more of Alemith's Evil Dead Red than any sort of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone. And that's fine in my book....

Peter Rowe, who is the local Union Tribune resident beer-geek -- and who generally never speaks ill of anything fermented that happens to be placed in front of him -- gave this really poor marks for being way too unbalanced. Really can't agree 100% with him in this case. For example, this struck me as being more balanced than many of the >10%ABV monsters that Avery is flooding the marketplace with, IMO.

Ok, so I've covered the Pros. How about Cons? Well, a little acidic in the backend, and perhaps a little cloying too. Mouthfeel? Perhaps a touch on the wet & mushy side of things. But really, I have a hard time picking out any show-stopping faults with this one -- again, as much as I would have liked to. Is that wrong for me to say? {Shrug} so be it.

Kinda hope that the brewery's management comes out of their shell, and makes peace with the extrememly tight San Diego brewing community. `Cause their flagship really isn't bad at all, IMHO...
//TB