From the bottleneck label: Brooklyn East India Pale Ale, East india Pale Ale is our version of the sturdy ale made by the British brewer George Hodgson in the 1820's to survive the voyage rom London around the Cape of Good Hope to Calcutta. East India Pale Ale is brewed from English malt and hops and will taste best before the freshness date indicated, …blah, blah, blah….
I wrote the following in November, 2003:
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Appearance: pale orange in color, highly carbonated, blessed with a huge, though swiftly settling, white head.
Aroma: fresh and fruity (peach, apricot, orange)
Taste: treacly sweet, and overly citric at first, and then, just too sweet, and bland. Rather thin-bodied, surprisingly so, with a lackluster finish, Hell, a lackluster everything. For an IPA, this possessed no POP, no POW, no ZING!, no nothing, it just sat and swam in the mouth, not offering further enticements from flavor, just more of the same bloated sugary droppings. A remarkably meager IPA, this shouldn't even be granted that name, it's a weak, pale, not-even-nearly hoppy offering. Hops have nothing to do here, and the flavor gets sickeningly sweet later on... I keep thinking "I'm getting the pale in this ale, but where's the India??" Eh, f'geddaboudit!!
My least favorite Brooklyn beer to date, and I'm saddened, for I was sure that they could do an IPA right. Oh, well...
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I couldn't disagree with my 8-years-younger self more. Just had a bottle, and whatever failings I found then are not in this one. Fresh, vibrant, zesty, hoppy, and excellent consumability.
I think it's time for a re-review. For the time being, here's what I thought, ...perhaps it was tweaked a bit, or did I get an old bottle, back then?
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