Beer of the Weekend #709: Pine Belt Pale Ale

Back to my Texas beer haul…

The beer tonight is Pine Belt Pale Ale, brewed by the Southern Start Brewing Company of Conroe, Texas.


The color is cloudy, medium abler with a lot of floating sedimentation. (It is odd for a pale ale. Perhaps this four-pack has been sitting around for a long time.) A finger of off-white, buttery head leaves a thick ring around the edge and a bubble-spotted skim. The aroma is a pleasing and inviting blend of sweet, candy caramel, citrus (orange and grapefruit), toasted malt, and touches of dark and tropical fruit. There is also a little cocoa. The flavor is surprisingly malty, which means I was expecting the wrong type of pale ale. There is a big toasted malt presence with a lot of sweet caramel. There is also a nice bitterness. Flavors of cocoa, muted citrus (orange and grapefruit again), and cherry licorice are also noticeable.

Fun facts about Pine Belt Pale Ale:

• Style: American pale ale, though it seems much more like a British pale ale.

• $7.20 per four-pack of 16-ounce cans at the Spec’s Wine, Spirits & Finer Foods store on Texas State Highway 121 in The Colony, Texas.

• Alcohol content: 6.3 percent ABV.

• IBU: 45.

• I find this amusing: Southern Star has a seasonal Bourbon barrel-aged stout called Black Crack. Based on the imagine on the beer’s webpage, it is apparently named in honor of the patching material used to fill roadway cracks.


The Quiet Man’s grade: B-.

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