Albright Grove Brewing Co | Mountain Laurel India Pale Lager

Howdy beer friends,

It has come to my attention that there are those of you out there that haven’t been to Albright Grove Brewing Company yet. You’re missing out – really, you are. I’ve been able to swing by several times now and there’s always something new and fun on the board. It’s also just a really cool spot. For instance there was a killer Imperial Stout on a few weeks back – I noticed, took the Mrs by, scored some major brownie points. See how this works?

On deck today is Albright Grove’s India Pale Lager. The IPL as a style is one I typically don’t gravitate to. However, as I have been impressed with every other beer I’ve tried from Albright Grove I figured, why not? This beer pours a dark to medium gold (although the picture makes it look more red than it is) with a great white head that sticks to the glass. On the nose I get floral, pine and fruit notes from the hops. I may actually be detecting a bit of a malty sweetness as well. On the palate there are some rather large hop qualities up front that are more sweet at first while slowly giving away to the bitter qualities towards the end of the sip. I’m finding more citrus qualities here, grapefruit perhaps, but not overpowering. A gentle malt bread-like note is evident here as well. This beer has a medium body, coats the palate very well and sticks around. 5.8% ABV and 48 IBUs – so not silly on the bitter scale but it’s getting up there.

Final snobs: I like to find a beer that makes me think twice about what I thought about a style. This is much more flavorful and refreshing than I expected it to be. It’s not a big, blow you over IPA (yes, ale) that we find with frequency these days but just a very pleasant, easy to drink beer with some wonderful characteristics. Well done!

Prost!