Firehouse Pale Ale

The very first beer from Firehouse. What's their first (flagship) beer like? Actually, this really isn't bad.

Surprisingly, not bad at all. Struck me as more of a hopped-up Red Ale than a by-the-numbers American Pale Ale. That is to say, the appearance and malt-bill reminded me more of AleSmith's Evil Dead Red than any sort of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone. And that's fine in my book....

Peter Rowe, who is the local Union Tribune resident beer-geek -- and who generally never speaks ill of anything cold and fermented that happens to be placed in front of him -- gave this really poor marks for being way too unbalanced. Really can't agree 100% with him in this case. For example, this struck me as being more balanced than many of the >10%ABV monsters that Avery is flooding the marketplace with, for example.

Ok, so I've covered the Pros. How about Cons? Well, a little acidic in the back end, and perhaps a little cloying too. Mouthfeel? Perhaps a touch on the wet & mushy side of things. But really, I have a hard time picking out any show-stopping faults with this one.

Overall, Firehouse's flagship beer really isn't bad at all, IMHO...
//TB