Mad Goose Pale Ale from the Purity Brewing Company

I have not posted for a while due to a stinking cold. At least this has allowed me to get plenty of sleep, but feeling like death very slightly warmed up has not been generally entertaining.

The odd thing about this pale ale is that it reminds me of when I was at school. More specifically, its flavour seems very much like one batch of beer I brewed that I didn’t think had enough character and so added a slug of gin to each bottle. I am told it was not terribly good behaviour to then sell this beer to my classmates, but that really didn’t occur to me at the time. I was genuinely interested what people thought of it, and I had to sell it to cover my costs. In these enlightened times, of course, a 13 year old selling home-brewed beer (and occasionally wine as well) to fellow pupils at school would be cause for getting locked up in a deeply frightening establishment for majorly maleficent adolescents. Seems a bit off to me, how is a young chap ever supposed to improve his plum wine without feedback?

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Mad Goose Pale Ale 4.2%, Purity Brewing Company

Deep golden colour. A lovely fruity, floral nose of hops with a herbal edge and good malty aromas. I’d like a shade more alcoholic richness, but as far as pale ale goes this is a nicely complex nose. The palate has great bitterness, just what I want from pale ale. The flavours really persist as well, with hoppy characters really lasting for a long time. This palate could easily handle, and be enhanced by, a shade more booze action – 5% seems like the sweet spot for pale ale in my view. Perhaps my memory does not serve, but I seem to recall my gin-infused beer had more personality and better alcoholic balance – I had no complaints from my school chums.

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