New River Pale Ale

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Cask offering at Churchkey on 14th St NW in Washington DC (a great bar BTW... orange/amber color with a tight white head. Piney/floral with a hint of citrus to the nose. Flavor was traditional with a hint of apricot, it seemed, putting a unique spin on it. Well balanced and proportional - easy to drink.

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

Pours an amber color, nothing impressive about the head or lacing, especially for an APA. Good drinkability, fairly smooth, featuring caramel malts and piney - but not overdone - hops. Quite simple, yet fairly enjoyable.

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

Dark golden, small buubly white head. Soft aroma of flowers and toffee, hints of oranges. Clean and straightforward flavour of butterscotch and grapefruit. thin body. Citric fruit and toffee in the aftertaste.

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

Keg at the Old Dominion Brewing Company, Ashburn, VA. Light brown/orange colour with a large white head. Hoppy aroma. Flavours are earthy hops and citrus. Medium bodied. Pretty good.

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

This is really similar to Sweetwater IPA’s malt profile. The hops are more reserved and really more in the flavor than the aroma, but it’s still an excellent APA. The orange/amber body has a nice glow and the head fades, but forms nicely and leaves a bit of lacing on the sides of the glass. The aroma is malty, along with a bit of orange and grass from the hops. The malt turns sweet in the flavor with a suitable bitterness to balance it out. Tasty.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Sampled as part of the spring tasting at Hard Times Café. Typical APA coloring. Amarillo, Cascade, and Columbus hops. Fruity flavor, can clearly detect apricot in the taste. In fact, I like it better than Dogfish Head Aprihop. A solid malt backing provides plenty of balance to this hopped-up ale. Sierra Nevada Summerfest on steroids.

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

The aroma is dry with some hoppy bitter coming through with possibly some floral overtones with some slight maltiness. The appearance is a crisp bronze to orange in color with rustic hues with a medium-sized head on top that diminishes to a light and bubbly lacing that is white in color and leaves pretty nice lacing on the glass. The mouthfeel is light-bodied and not bad with some decent hoppy complexity with some nice balance with a palate that is a bit thin and possibly watery. The flavor is decently hoppy with some dried-floral overtones with an aftertaste that is a bit sweet with hints of caramel with a finish that is dry-like and not too bad and is pretty refreshing and rather smooth. Overall, this is your typical pale ale with nice dried-floral accents and not to bad but not impressive, decent stuff here and is an average pale ale and is a bit weak and lacking to some extent.

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

amberish color that is fairly transparent. whitish head. the aroma is very soapy hoppy, very wet. All i got in the body was an assload of soap, dial soap to be exact. tasted like when i used to get my mouth washed out with soap for talkin shit when i was little

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

~ Initial review (Bottle), 11-14-2003:
On a recent business trip to the Hampton Roads area, I had the honor of meeting up with several fine locals. After exchanging beers, James passed to me a six-pack of this Pale Ale (a beer I had not heard of before that time). But it wasn't until I got home and chilled this off that I got a taste of it.

The six-pack holder goes on about the malt bill and the hop profile (Cascade, Amarillo, Centennial, and Columbus) -- high marks there for not "holding back" info like most breweries.

Quite orange in appearence -- almost tangerine-like -- with only hints of darker ruddy/reddish highlights. Subdued head of foam, with only the hint of a head of foam remaining shortly therafter. And only hints of lacing, too.

Very "bright' in the nose -- Centennial and Cascade, for sure. Nice and appealing aroma, overall.

The flavor profile was a bit quirky at first -- bitter, yet soft and yeilding. No sharp edges to this, that's for sure. The hop profile would make this almost IPA-like, if it had a sturdier malt-bill. Perhaps it's the excessive use of Amarillo, or too much Columbus, or some other odd combination in the hop-bill, but this beer definately doesn't taste like any other American Pale Ale I've had recently. This is different -- it grows on me.

Drinkability isn't flawless -- a little disconcerting in the backend -- but I had no qualms with either polishing this off, nor wanting to grab another.

An interesting Atlantic Coast twist to a style that sometimes I feel has been done to death. Recommended.

Cheers to James for the sixer...!

~ Re-review (Bottle), 06-16-2004:
Another trip out to the Hampton Roads area, and another sampling of this excellent Pale Ale. Quite drinkable and refreshing this time -- and not just because I'm stressed out looking for my lost luggage, tks! ;)

Scores adjusted a bit, for this quite tasty APA. Recommended.
//TB

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 4 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

Pours with a golden orange body topped by a thin head with some lacing. It’s slighty bitter and hoppy with a touch of pine, some hay/grass and a little grain. Medium bodied, smooth and a touch warming.