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I was delighted to see more options for Common John brews available at the local beer store. After having visited the brewery in person, and probably driving past it a few hundred times since, it occupies an unreasonable amount of space in my head for the size of the actual brewery. Nevertheless, it seemed like they weren't getting much distribution until recently, and I will be more than happy to review whatever beers happen to come my way. In this case, it is the pale ale, and I do not recall ever sampling this one in the wild, so let's hope for good things.
The beer pours considerably darker than most pale ales. In fact, I would have guessed that this was an amber ale, based entirely on the color. That said, it's not actually amber, but it is a deep copper. It looks very good, and it retains enough head to keep a good layer of bubbles across the top of the beer for the entirety of the drink. The aroma is quite hoppy, and it dispels the notion that this could be confused with an amber ale. I'm not going to trick myself into expecting IPA levels of hops, but this should be pretty flavorful.
First sip has floral hops mixed with a cracker malt that is more significant than it would be in an IPA or an APA. The result is a fairly evenly balanced drink that reinforces the idea of drinkability as the hallmark of a good style. This beer gives the impression that it could be sipped for quite some time without needing to change it up, but I wonder how well it's going to gulp. Let's find out.
Tip-in is sweet caramel malt with a light sprinkling of flowers and even a hint of pine. The middle raises carbonation to the roof while the malt and hops swim together pretty perfectly in the center of the mouth. The finish is unfortunately bitter with dryness and a cessation of all flavors before the trail off even starts.
Bottom Line: It seemed a lot more promising at first.
1.75/5
