Victory Brewing Co.
Downingtown, PA
This firmly crisp and aromatically arousing pale ale integrates streams of herbal hop complexity with a softly supportive malt base. A portion of the cost of every bottle sold is distributed to environmental advocacy groups through the Headwaters Grant.
ABV: 5.0
ABW: 3.9
COLOR: 10-11
BITTERNESS: 55-60
ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1048
AVAILABLE: AK, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, ME, MD, MA, MI, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WI
Malt decidedly plays second fiddle to the hops in this pale ale from the venerable Victory. That’s not to say the beer is one-dimensional. Just like that second chair in the orchestra, you would know something was missing if the malt weren’t there—and, in this case, the malt sweetness is there just enough to let the hops shine through. Grassy, haylike aromas kick things off, with grapefruit rind following up. A medium effervescence keeps things nimble on the palate, leaving a nice coating of grapefruit-pine and just a touch of caramel lingering long on the palate.
Deep golden in color, bright and breezy in character, this is a solid, flavorsome pale ale bouncing with the goodness of hops from aroma to aftertaste. The mouth-filling taste is mostly bitter but with plenty of fruity sweetness for balance. Grapefruit, pine and floral notes race across the palate, driving on into the dry, bitter, perfumed finish and sitting there, tingling on the tongue long after the final swallow. It’s not the crispest example I’ve ever tried, but it delivers all you’d expect from an American pale ale.
Lisa Morrison, aka The Beer Goddess, writes about beer whenever and wherever she can and also gets to talk about it on a weekly radio show in her hometown of Portland, OR.
Author of the Good Bottled Beer Guide and The Book of Beer Knowledge, Jeff Evans is an eight-time editor of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide. More of his writing can be found at www.insidebeer.com.
Wed Jul 3rd, 2013
The Young Turks and Old Lions of Breweries
Once a year the whole world of craft brewers, and I do mean the whole world, gathers together for four days of catching up, digesting new ideas, staying up way...
Read the blog
