It’s Friday night and we are ready for another beer tasting! This week, we’re reviewing five beers from a Southern California brewery in Glendale, California called Paperback Brewing Company, a brewery which themes their beers after vintage pulp novels as well as grindhouse and exploitation films!
So, please, go get your favorite beverage, sit down, kick back and enjoy as we do our tasting!
Our first beer is…
BEER: One Night With Nora (Blonde Ale)
ABV: 5.1%
MATT: 3.75/5
DANIELLE: 3.75/5
LOOK: Gold and clear
SCENT: Sweet corn, citrus, sweet wheat, fruit
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Thin mouthfeel. Comes off like a Lager at times with a dry, hoppy, slightly bitter finish. Not as much fruit or sweetness as you might expect there to be.
FINAL REFLECTIONS: This is a crushable ale with a nice, slightly sweet wheat/corn flavor on the tongue but is offset, somewhat, by an unexpectedly slightly bitter finish. It’s not really what I’m looking for when I pop open a blonde ale or a lager — but the beer is still good and can pair with just about any sort of pub grub.
BEER: Strawberry Shortcakes (Strawberry Shortcake Sour Ale)
ABV: 5.2%
MATT: 3.75/5
DANIELLE: 3.5/5
LOOK: Gold and clear
SCENT: Strawberries all day long
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Thin mouthfeel. It’s a strawberry party in a glass. That’s basically all you can get except for the cream taste behind it.
FINAL REFLECTIONS: A really good sour for a change that doesn’t feel like a brewer is stuffing sour fruit into a can and calling it a day. I enjoyed this — but I’m still of the mind that I would not order a sour beer at a bar. Even still, this was enjoyable, with a great strawberry flavoring with a slight whip cream finish.
BEER: Under Pressure (Pale Ale)
ABV: 5.5%
MATT: 3.5/5 (changed from audio recording)
DANIELLE: 3.25/5
LOOK: Gold and slightly hazy
SCENT: Pine and citrus
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Thin mouthfeel. A lot of pine and not much else with a hell of a lot of dry hopped bitterness
FINAL REFLECTIONS: A good pale ale — though extremely dry on the finish to the point where I recommend that you carry with you a bottle of water to rehydrate. It almost overwhelms any real flavor the beer was meant to have — though you can still taste pine when the bitterness leaves your tongue. Not sure that’s how this was supposed to go…
BEER: Chills ‘n’ Thrills Blackberries (Blackberry Cobbler Sour Ale)
ABV: 5.8%
MATT: 3/5
DANIELLE: 3/5
LOOK: Amber and hazy
SCENT: Blackberries, I think — though it almost smells the same as the last sour.
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Thin mouthfeel. A pleasant sour — though it’s hard to make out “blackberries” here.
FINAL REFLECTIONS: Good as far as sours go but there isn’t much here past the sour element and I feel like once you have had one sour, you’ve had them all.
BEER: Bunny With a Chainsaw (Double Dry Hopped Hazy IPA)
ABV: 8.2%
MATT: 4/5
DANIELLE: 3/5
LOOK: Gold and hazy
SCENT: Some citrus and a lot of pine and malt
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Thicker mouthfeel. Citrus and fruit with a dry finish — though not as dry as the other Pale Ale we had.
FINAL REFLECTIONS: Sweet and hazy, just how I like a hazy style IPA. My wife didn’t like the bitterness on the end — but it’s nowhere near as overwhelming as the other Pale Ale we had and that’s a huge plus. This allows for the flavor to come through beautifully. The high ABV also helps things.
FINAL THOUGHTS: While it wasn’t as spectacular as we were expecting, this tasting was still good with not a single beer under a “3” for us. Still, there were some mid-range beers here which didn’t bring anything new or exciting to the table. Paperback Brewing Company is a new brewery, so I’m expecting it to find its footing. If it’s creative intent is any indication, I think they will eventually find the flavor to match soon.
HEAR OUR FINAL THOUGHTS:
NEXT WEEK: We will explore some beers from Rogue Brewing!