Golden colour with a medium head and nice lacing down the glass. Bitter, definitely stale hops, quite assertively cheesy. The malts aren’t bad - a pale, simple backdrop.

There’s a whole back story to this beer. Hastings Street is the original skid road, where the logs were sent down skids to the mill, which was Hastings Mill. The area is still skid row, of course, as you’ll notice if you approach this place for any direction. And Pat’s has been there since 1913...not sure if the logging was still going on at that time, but the skid row poverty part is still going strong after 140 years so there’s that. Anytway the name couldn’t be more legit, and if you’ve been in the neighbourhood as long as this place, it’s not sardonic, there’s no irony, it’s just a statement of fact.

History lesson over, let’s talk about the beer. Hazy, dull blonde. Thin, bubbly head. There isn’t much aroma to this, though pour right to the top doesn’t help. Has a malt-forward character, vague caramel and sticky pale malts. Apparent bitterness is fairly low, and as with the pale this is lacking in terms of finishing hops. It’s tougher to get past with IPA, though, as a hop blast is sort of essential to meeting expectations.

Slightly hazy, amber, not much head. Aroma is fairly light, touch of caramel. On the palate, a caramel accent with a light woody hop note. Light bitterness underpins this. A sort of basic amber ale character, wanting for finishing hop but otherwise balanced.

Draft - Buttery pale malts. Clear gold with a decent white head. Light butter, biscuit malts and some light fruity esters. Not good, but had worse.