Golden Leaf Pale Ale

City Brewery
La Crosse, WI

Available: WI, MN, IA

The original Golden Leaf brand and bottle label was the product of the Williams Lithography Co. in Milwaukee, established in 1850. E T Mueller bought the rights to the brand in 1899. It was reintroduced with a new label in 1940. The Golden Leaf brand was re-launched as part of the city of La Crosse’s Sesquicentennial (150th birthday).

ABV: 5.6
ABW: 4.3
Color: 12
Bitterness: 38
Gravity: 1052

Is the “Golden Leaf” meant to refer to ripe hop cone? The Cascade hop is emphasized on the back label, with a reference to that variety’s typically floral citrus aroma. Orange blossom? I find more of a winey, over-ripe satsuma note. Perhaps cherries and apricots, too. A teasingly complex fruitiness on a firm but crunchy base of cookie-like maltiness. Combine those two elements with a distinctively pinkish amber colour, and this begins to sound like a desert beer. Don’t be deceived. Those hops added more than sweet satsumas; there is also a hit of rooty bitterness in the finish. The beer world’s answer to a pastis?
- Michael Jackson

The green label decorated by hop cones announces this is something different from the home of the “world’s largest six-pack” (six painted lagering tanks in LaCrosse that together hold enough beer to fill more than 7 million cans and are worth driving out of your way to see), where lagers have been the norm for nearly 150 years. Straightforward, from a citrusy/piney aroma through a dry, bitter finish. Not terribly complex, but fuller bready/toasty notes emerge as the beer warms.
- Stan Hieronymus

Michael Jackson
Author of Ultimate Beer, the Simon & Schuster Guide to Beer and numerous other works on drinks, Jackson has created legions of converts to fine beer.

Stan Hieronymus
Editor at Realbeer.com, a professional journalist for 40 years and amateur brewer for 15, Hieronymus is the author of four beer books, including Brew Like a Monk.

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