Friday, June 20, 2008

#288 Sweet Water - 420 Extra Pale Ale

Not really sure what's with the drug reference in this beer. This is only beer in Sweet Water's lightup with any innuendo, other beers not names for style alone are Road Trip and Festival Ale, so this is an odd change.

This beer has a nice floral hoppy aroma with a hint of malt. The color is a dark straw or light gold. The head pours thick, with moderate retention.

The taste of this Extra Pale Ale is a little fruity with the blend of hops and malt. There is some malt flavor with a little sweet caramel bread taste, but light. The hop flavors any light just a hint of floral flavor, and the bitterness is pretty strong. The most pronounced flavor is the bitterness. The mouthfeel has some body, but overall thin. The finish is a little bitter, but mainly clean.

This is an alright beer, lots of slight tastes, just not balancing really well.

8 comments:

Stephanie said...

you should have had that one on the float trip.

btw.. what's the drug reference? I don't get it.

Anonymous said...

Just so you know

I'm not a southern boy by any means but..

"Road Trips" and "Festivals" are all part of the tradition of the fanbases of bands such as Grateful Dead, Phish, Widespread Panic etc. 420 is part of the culture.

So you could argue that these all play into the "theme"..

I don't know, I'm from Northern Illinois and have only gone down to ATL a few times (to go see concerts actually, but not Widespread Panic.. instead a band called STS9)

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah Stephanie..

420 is a reference to smoking cannabis

Anonymous said...

420, in this case, is a reference to the first day they made that particular beer - April 20, 1997. Yes, it has the drug reference, but I can't speak to the brewers recreational activities...

Just finished a 420 pale ale myself... I love this beer!!!

William Nordmann said...

I guess I could be wrong and Sweet Water just chose a slightly ambiguous name for the beer.

Anonymous said...

I don't know how you missed the "subtle" innuendo of their other brews; Happy Ending, Donkey Punch and Hummer.

Anonymous said...

read up on hops

Anonymous said...

420 was (and still is) the police code for dirty hippies doing their thing.

Not that I would know anything about that.