Beer Blogging - Green Flash Extra Pale Ale
Happy Sunday night, everyone. Tonight I have a beer that a friend of mine gave me: the Extra Pale Ale from Green Flash Brewing, down in San Diego. The beer's name refers to a phenomenon that you can see especially well in San Diego: as the sun sets over the Pacific, just as it dips below the horizon, you can see a flash of green light. It's not local to San Diego; I've seen it in Barbados as well.
Science alert: the green flash effect is caused by the refraction of light by the atmosphere; atmospheric inversions enhance the effect by causing something like the mirages on hot pavement. Basically, the green light bounces around for a while and doesn't get dispersed as easily as the other colors, so it can make it to your eyes. It's best observed from near sea level; standing on a beach at sunset is the perfect spot, but even then atmospheric conditions need to be correct for it to be seen.
Anyway, it's a beautiful phenomenon, so hopefully this will be a beautiful-tasting beer. It poured into the glass with a huge, foamy head that took a minute to disappear; the beer itself is a light gold color. It certainly smells like an extra pale ale, all hops in the nose. There's some citrus smell, but mostly it's a floral hop aroma.
The taste mirrors the smell pretty well. Right out front is a sort of bready malt taste, but it's really subtle. Right after that the hops come in, and it's that same mix of floral and citrus (but way heavier on the floral). After the hops, the malt actually makes a little comeback that combines with the hops to give a long-lasting aftertaste. I wasn't expecting that, but it was a really cool effect. Kind of like the green flash itself, actually! Overall, I'd say this beer is a nice example of the Extra Pale Ale class, and if you find yourself in San Diego and see it you should definitely pick some up. I'm hoping I can find it again.
Rating: 8/10
Science alert: the green flash effect is caused by the refraction of light by the atmosphere; atmospheric inversions enhance the effect by causing something like the mirages on hot pavement. Basically, the green light bounces around for a while and doesn't get dispersed as easily as the other colors, so it can make it to your eyes. It's best observed from near sea level; standing on a beach at sunset is the perfect spot, but even then atmospheric conditions need to be correct for it to be seen.
Anyway, it's a beautiful phenomenon, so hopefully this will be a beautiful-tasting beer. It poured into the glass with a huge, foamy head that took a minute to disappear; the beer itself is a light gold color. It certainly smells like an extra pale ale, all hops in the nose. There's some citrus smell, but mostly it's a floral hop aroma.
The taste mirrors the smell pretty well. Right out front is a sort of bready malt taste, but it's really subtle. Right after that the hops come in, and it's that same mix of floral and citrus (but way heavier on the floral). After the hops, the malt actually makes a little comeback that combines with the hops to give a long-lasting aftertaste. I wasn't expecting that, but it was a really cool effect. Kind of like the green flash itself, actually! Overall, I'd say this beer is a nice example of the Extra Pale Ale class, and if you find yourself in San Diego and see it you should definitely pick some up. I'm hoping I can find it again.
Rating: 8/10
Labels: beer
posted by The Disgruntled Chemist at
6:28 PM
