I first spied the shiny maroon can in the domestics aisle about two weeks ago.  Poor little guy!  All alone in a sea of brightly labeled brown bottles.   I was interested, but not enough to buy it.  You see, as summer is nearly upon us, I just have not been in the mood for a Pale Ale.  On top of that, I had never heard of Southern Star Brewery.  On top of that, Texas doesn’t have the most stellar craft brewery reputation.  As they say necessity is the mother is the mother of invention undesired purchases.  You see I really needed an empty beer can for an upcoming recipe (soon to be blog post) and couldn’t force myself to buy Nasty Light or Boddingtons, so i took the opportunity to try something new.

Before drinking, I did a little background check on my new acquisition; Southern Star Brewery’s Pine Belt Pale Ale, and was intrigued.  First of all, the brewery is only a year old.  Hats off to these guys!  Besides the fact that these guys started a brewery in the worst economic conditions is decades, somehow their brew reched me in humble little Toledo, OH.  Secondly, this is not your typical Pale Ale, let alone canned (160z) beer!  The brew features interesting malt combos (Rahr special pale, Simpsons 30-37, Crisp 45) and a go-against-the-flow hop arrangement (Sorachi Ace, Galena, CTZ, Palisades). No Cascade found here! Add to the intrigue is the fact that this beer is unfiltered.

The Pour:

Pours a deep red copper color with a lofty 2.5 inch head that dissapates slowly, most likely due to hop content.  Holding the glass up to the light, one discovers that Southern Star wasn’t lieing about the unfiltered nature of this beer.  It is almost as cloudy as a light wheat beer.  After the beer settled down from the pour, I spied little black particles on the bottom of my clean glass.

The Smell:

Malty!  Strong whiffs  of carmel, grain, burt sugar, and iron emerge.  The hop aroma is complex – just the quality I look for in a hopped up beer.  It is a tad citrusy, a little piney, and quite acidic smelling.

The Taste:

Not at all what one expects.  If you are searching for that patented american pale ale flavor (i.e. Boulevard or Sierra Nevada) you wont find it here.  In fact, it has somewhat of a dopelbock flavor.  The malts are soothing.  Definitetly roasted at higher temperatures and then carmelized in the brewing process.  The hop presence is neatly balanced.  Not entirely grapefruity, but cirtusy hop flavors first are noticeable, but then the complex mix gives way to pinenuts and grass.

Overall:

Don’t mess with Texas!

Nate’s Rating:

Overall Satisfaction: ★★★¾☆ 

Among other American Pale Ales: ★★★★¼