From the Beer Writer: Two years ago, I was told by numerous members of the brewing-industry that pale ales were a dying beer breed. Pale ales are still around, but they are scarcer than they have been in the past and the debate about their long-term viability continues. Most that you find these days are not like pale ales pre-dating 2014—meaning more traditional orange- or copper-colored pale ales with sturdier malt framework balancing out their hop bills. It would seem the pale ale is here to stay, but destined to take a backseat to the ubiquitous and far more popular India pale ale and take on the flavor, aroma and appearance of IPAs. Resident Pio Pico Pale Ale exemplifies the contemporary pale ale. Hopped like an IPA and given depth courtesy of myriad less-imposing malts, it is extremely dry and bursting with hop-appeal. Juicy notes of orange, apricot and pineapple hit first, followed by a touch of pine-like bitterness accompanied by an almost nutty toastiness. At 5.5% alcohol-by-volume, it’s well-suited for a day of sports spectatorship at its place of origin, The Local Eatery and Watering Hole (the parent-company of on-site Resident Brewing Company).
From the Brewer: “Pio Pico Pale Ale is a highly hopped West Coast pale ale featuring a new hop variety called Idaho 7 and a smaller amount of Citra hops. At Resident, we constantly want to test out new hops, and Idaho 7 was towards the top of the list. For this pale ale, the grist contains Canadian two-row, English pale malt, wheat malt and a small amount of Crystal 15. We wanted some wheat malt for extra body and two types of base-malt for some malt complexity. This beer was not filtered or fined, for a medium-bodied American pale ale with big hop punch. Idaho 7 hops brings an orange pithiness, ripe pineapple and some grassiness. Adding a smaller amount of Citra hops brings in a touch more tropical character to the flavor and aroma. We dry-hop Pio Pico with the same amount of hops as our IPAs so the hop aroma climbs out of the glass..”—Robert Masterson, Brewmaster, Resident Brewing Company