Friends, it’s a happy time when a Sam Adams mix pack comes out. As you all know, darker, winter beers are this Captain’s favorite, but summer/spring beers are wondrous too. The most recent mixed 12er I picked up has 2 of each of the following: Boston Lager, Sam Light, Blackberry Wit (finally!), Hefewiezen, Summer Ale and Pale Ale.

I’ve chosen to review that Pale Ale today because I have about three minutes. And the review will be simple, as this beer is basically exactly what you’d expect from a good American Pale Ale.

It’s hop forward but without any sharpness. There is no specific note of pine, grapefruit, etc—now, at times this sort of “general bitterness” would be less, say, intriguing than I like out of a beer. But if you’re eating a good meal, cooling down after exercise, starting off your morning, etc, sometimes you just want a good, balanced pale ale. Not a Pliny the Elder that you’ll taste for hours. Not a Ruinator that will, well, ruin your taste buds for the rest of the day. You just want a drinkable beer. That’s what this is. It’s a pleasantly bitter, refreshing beer with subtle, bready malt and firm but not overbearing hops. Serve it cold when the weather’s hot and then get me three to five more and a sandwich. Turkey club. Mustard, yeah. But no mayo. That stuff’s wack, man.

Rye in a beer? That’s right, rye is no longer limited to the mile high pastrami sandwich at your favorite Jewish Deli. (regrettable use of “mile high”). Why, in Georgia, they put rye in beer!….when they have enough water to make beer…Terrapin, the venerable micro-brewery (ok…they are five years old, but it seems like they should be older) from Athens, Georgia has made this unusual ale their signature beer…and for good reason…this brew will grow on you.

So how does a rye pale ale differ from a non-rye pale ale? Well, being that I’m Lieutenant LAGER…I’ll just make some shnit up about PALE ALES and tell you…

These are the specs from their site:

Malt: 2-row pale, Munich, Malted Rye, Bisuit Malt, Honey Malt.

Hops: Amarillo, Cascade, East Kent Goldings, Fuggle, Magnum.

IBU’s: 45
O.G.: 13.5
ABV: 5.3%

Now for my bullshit:

This ale has a beautiful golden brown complexion, which is a little darker than your average pale ale…I think… wait a second, yep it’s darker…At any rate, this is similar to some of your oatmeal style beers (or anything else grainy). I was very impressed that Terrapin made this rye brew into a pale ale as opposed to a stout. The rye compliments this lighter style very well and has a bold and very distinguishable taste as a result. Being that the rye does kind of jump out at you, the beer seems designed to have a nice malty aftertaste to temper the pronounced ryeness of this beer. The overall mixture was oddly refreshing and I highly recommend partaking at your nearest convenience.

So how does rye pale ale compare to regular pale ale? It has a rye in it… I don’t know… Imagine your favorite Pale ale and mix it will Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout…OK, now give it a pleasantly malty aftertaste….there you go… Terrapin Rye Pale Ale… Next time you are thinking about having a nice pastrami sandwich, have a six pack of this instead…your boss *probably* won’t mind.