12 ounce bottle from Bessette’s, Canton, NY, 4/15/15. Clear amber, thin tan head, fair retention. Aroma of caramel malt, citrus hops and a bit of toastiness. The taste is citrus hops, caramel malt. Medium bodied moderate lingering bitterness.

Location: Sampled at the NY Brewfest on Governor's Island, 6/19/10

Aroma: The aroma is pretty hoppy, with some caramel, grass, and citrus
Appearance: Hazy amber colored beer with a pretty good sized head
Flavor: The taste is mildly sweet, but the flavor is mostly bitter
Palate: A nice dry mouthfeel, clean, easy drinking, and with relatively lively carbonation
Overall Impression: This is actually a very solid American Pale Ale. I really enjoyed it quite a bit. This is from a relatively small brewery, but a fairly impressive beer none-the-less. Well-made. I'd drink this one again.

Copper coloured body with a thinnish off-white head. Decent appearance - nothing impressive. Nice aroma of fresh hops with a bunch of caramel scents and a good potent maltiness as well. Medium-bodied; Sharp hops up front in the taste with a metallic twang, all with a good malt backbone. Aftertaste shows some fruit characterisitcs along with some malt and of course the hop bitterness. Overall, an alright apa, nothing remarkable and nothing worthy of a drain-pour. I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased at Oliver’s in Albany, New York on 05-November-2006.

Pour is an orange with a large white head. Aroma is a nice mix of hops and citrus. Flavor is a little bit one sided and there is a decent hops but nothing to blanace it out. The malts are kinda on the low side and if your low on malts your going to have to hop the wazoo out of a beer. This is where this one falls short.

Hazy golden yellow with a tall, long lasting, white head. Fruity caramel aroma. Building dryness, good balance, nice dry finish.

2006 bottle drunk on 3/20/2007
As much as I hate having to do it, I gotta give credit to those butchers at Olde Saratoga for this one. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not great by any means, and there’s nothing unique or particularly well done about it either. It has too much sweet-and-sour maltiness, hard breadiness on the finish and a very washed out texture. But, even being an older bottle, it does produce moderate lacing, there’s definitely a fair amount of enjoyable hop fruitiness and overall character. Bitterness isn’t over-the-top and some softness does break through from well-extracted honey/caramel malts. Plus, it seems free of flaws, especially DMS and heavy metallic notes, which seem to run rampant in this brewery. In the end, though, just another uneventful, by-the-numbers pale ale. Peachy-apricot-amber body has an off-white head that shows modest retention and light/medium lacing. No alcohol noted.

12 oz bottle poured into a Hobgoblin tulip glass. Pours dark golden with orangish tints. Cannot see through the beer. No head but some lacing. Aroma is strong - hop dominated - citusy, orange creaminess with some grapefruit. Taste is hoppy grapefruit (Amarillo?) heavy with a decent malt character. Spikey mouthfeel. Very present bitterness at the end. In the vain of most hoppy pale ales I taste now. Oh, first rating in new apartment.

A golden ale with a thin off white head. Surprise from SHBC! A pleasant aroma of caramel malt over good floral c-hops and classic citrusy notes. In mouth. the same. A good malt base with well balanced hops. A bit thin but this the strongest SH offering I tasted to date. One of my coup de coeur at the CNY Brewfest 2006.