Light yellow colour with a nice head when pouring. The nose gives away hints of the bitterness, but even more so the fruitiness which is promising. Citra- hops is dominant without a doubt. A funny curiosity detail about this one though: Westum made a can for fun, with a joke on the Norwegian economist Jan Blichfeldt (Who wrote a rather revealing article about the so-called new beer trend, showcasing little experimentation/competence in the modern day’s beer scene). Enough about that: what does it actually taste like? The mentioned person of interest claimed that “new age IPAs taste like horse piss” (I don’t know what that tastes like, but ok). Let’s get down to it.

Nice carbonation! Deep delicious fruity vibes of orange, lemon, a tiny hint of grapefruit, evolving into strict bitterness that lasts for a good while. Perfect summertime beer for hot sunt days. Extremely well balanced, double dry hopped Citra madness! (And I’d imagine pretty friggin’ far from horse piss)

After a light tongue tingle, the aftermath is  that but of hops… covered by a feeding fruity outro. Hops is the last thing that gives up. Very very good, yet another stunner from the up-and-rising magician Westum. 

(Photo: M. K. Burheim)

This beer is the first one to be reviewed here following last month’s Japan tour. The fragrances are flowery fruity and by looks it is a bright yellow beer which shows rather great degrees of carbonation. More nutty fruit-like with a hint of pears, underlying notes at least. So; what does it taste?  The land of the sun here brings us a fresh crisp pale ale with definite traces of pear and chestnut, boosted with the hefty carbonation. A great representative for Japan’s passion to the art of brewing, this one. It also maintains a quite heavy malty power throughout  the whole mouth feel, leaving a subtle caramelish postludium.  Another reason to love this exiting country!

Beautiful yellow-golden colour and pouring a small head. The nose is light and fruity and carries references to multivitamin/mango-juice, although with an organic- frisky touch to it. Light-bodied and crispy impression on the palate. Subtle degree of carbonation, nice fruity taste of mandarines, followed by slightly sour evolvement gives this beer a wide range of taste and some degree of excitement. A good sour beer from Poland.

I’ve had this one lying around for ages… It’s time to crack it. For starters, it has a very very deep yellow color (no wonder as it is way past best before date, but still giving it a shot). There’s close to no head when pouring and the aroma seems highly fruity, like apple cake and caramel notes. Surprisingly, there’s still quite a bit of carbonization going on here, though the taste is a little weak/a pastry-like, lasting for about 3 seconds. But, there’s also some nice citrus herein. There we go; I might have ruined this pale ale to a certain extent by saving it for too long. But I bet it was really good a year ago. It’s still not bad.

This APA holds a gold medal in the Great American Beer Festival. No Wonder- the very hoppy (but comfortably so) nose paves way to forest-like Associations… Mosaic hops provides to a highly floral presentation in this beer. Nice golden colour and pours a great head with the foam lying perfectly as a carpet in the glass. This is Perfect in terms of carbonization-level and mild enough for the malts to step  upfront, before the hops positions itself… Which it does in a very suitable way. All in all: This beer is an epitome of well-balancedness. Definately amongst the top of what I’ve had of Pale ales, simply superb and with a long-lasting aftertaste- refreshingly good.

Light yellow colourwise with a good degree of carbonization. At the nose one can clearly detect the Amarillohops by the first second: Summer blooming with a fruity twist. The taste is also fruity and with a teasingly bitter curtain behind it- but overall, it’s a smooth, mild beer- in American Pale ale-style.

Sweetish fruity aroma, looks are transparent yellow. The freshness is great, the beer mediumbodied with a hoppy sting in bottom, but an all-over quite mild/well-adjusted pale ale that can be consumed repeatingly.

Smells of sweet fruit, spring in bloom. The colour is golden yellow and the carbonizaton contributes to the freshness. Tastewise, it’s at first fruity, and then becomes malt-focused, hence sweet. Very light texture & shortlasting taste.

Totally clear, light golden transparent with small hat. Aroma is typhical lager. Kind of tastes like that too, but a really good one. It’s like, a blitz of freshness, before all the tastes of the ingredients strikes at once. The malts vaguely shows itself too, but only for a split second and it’s gone again, like nothing just happened.

Light brown/red for the eye. Pours neat little head. Aromawise, I get some citrus and apple, leaving a fresh impression. By taste, this is confirmed, with definite fruityness and medium body. Long lasting on the palate. Perfect for sommertimes.