When you want to test the talents of a brewpub, try the pale ale.
If it’s good, the hops will blast you out of your chair while the malts make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
If it’s not, look for another watering hole. The American brewing renaissance of the past 20 years almost guarantees you’ll find a good pale ale without going too far.
Although British in origin, light-brown to golden-amber pale ales have become libationary masterpieces in the hands of American microbrewers, whose experiments with hops and malt have yielded wondrous potables.
Some wonder why the ales are called “pale,” since they’re typically much darker than the golden lagers that make up about 90 percent of American beer consumption. The name stems from a comparison with porter, the dark-brown and black brews that were the norm in England before pale ales became available at the turn of the 19th Century.
Although making up only a small fraction of American beer consumption, fine bottled examples such as Geary’s Pale Ale from Maine and Long Trail Pale Ale from Vermont, along with California’s Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, make the style available in bottles to every beer lover in the country.
