Otter Creek Pale Ale Beer Review

Otter Creek Pale Ale

Review Date 5/20/2001

Try? Re-buy?

There’s nothing like fresh beer, and if there is one brewery that does an exceptional job of getting the consumer fresh beer, it is the Otter Creek Brewing Company of Middlebury, Vermont. I never have a problem getting fresh Otter Creek beer anywhere in New England. The bottle of their exceptional pale ale that I’m drinking right now was bottled on April 17th. It says so right on the back label. That freshness is important in a wonderfully delicate, flavorful beer like this one.

There are four main ingredients that breathe life into beer, and 90% of the time, the fresher the beer is the better they can be appreciated. The most basic ingredients that beer is made from are:

Water.
Olympia says “it’s the water” that makes their beer special, and brewing water really can make a difference. The level of “hardness” in water, or the quantity of salts like calcium chloride present in it can make a big difference in the body of a beer. The pilsners of Bohemia and the pale ales of Burton-on-Trent are classic examples of this.

Malt
The heart and soul of beer. Malt sugars provide body and flavor to the beer and fermentable material for the yeast. The degree to which malt is “kilned” (roasted) provides further flavor and color. Black malt makes a stout or porter black, but contrary to popular belief it doesn’t make the beer higher in alcohol.

Yeast
Tiny living organisms that actually consume malt sugars and create alcohol and carbon dioxide. They can also contribute flavor compounds known as esters (no, not your aunt) and phenols.

Hops
The seasoning to beer. They produce bitterness and aroma, and sometimes contribute fruity flavors. Hop bitterness balances off the sweet character of the malt; without hops most beer would be much too sweet and cloying to drink.

If a beer accentuates a particular ingredient over all of the others, I like to call it a showcase beer. Otter Creek Pale Ale is a showcase beer in my opinion, since it highlights the subtle bitterness and rich flowery aroma and flavor of the Cascade hop variety. This ale is dry hopped with Cascades, meaning it is aged on whole hop flowers, a process which imparts flowery, herbal hop character to the beer without extracting bitterness.

In September of 1997 I wrote this about Otter Creek Pale Ale:

Otter Creek brewing in Vermont is a first class operation, from the care they take in brewing their beers to seeing that they are properly handled on down the distribution line. Not surprising then that their newest year-round brew, Otter Creek Pale Ale, is such a fine beer. This delicate, dry-hopped light golden beer is so packed with Cascades that it seems almost chewy with hop resins. The nose and palate convince you that you are holding a handful of hops in your hand rather than a beer, but the smooth balanced finish brings you back down to earth. I have always maintained that a delicate beer the likes of this is as much a masterpiece as a big, assertive brew, and I thank Otter Creek for proving my point.

Otter Creek Pale Ale pours to a light golden color with a thick foamy head and a wonderfully fresh hoppy nose. When I say fresh hoppy I mean it on this beer, sticking your nose in a glass is like sticking your nose in a bag of fresh Cascade hops. The palate is thin in the malt department but big on hop flavors and aroma. Oily, perfumey, herbal, aromatic are some of the descriptors that can be used for the hoppiness of this brew. The finish is balancing bitter but not overly so, most of the hoppiness in this brew is of the aforementioned floral, aromatic variety.

Try it with just about anything, but I’m enjoying a bottle with a garden salad loaded with crisp fresh vegetables and fresh baked bread.

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft

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