Geary's Pale Ale

First Brewed: 1986
Brewery Location: Portland, Maine, United States
ABV: 4.5%

History & Availability: The Pale Ale is Geary's first and flagship beer, so it will have the most widespread distribution around the northeast.

Appearance: This is a mostly-clear deep copper beer, not as dark as the more wood-colored ales, but pretty standard for the style. Carbonation appears slightly above average but the head is making me anxious, it's pretty fizzy and doesn't have much beef to it so I'm nervous that it'll disappear before I get too far into the drink. --As a follow-up, it appears my fears were unfounded, as Geary's goes 4 for 4 on the head retention front. It's definitely a smaller head than some of their other beers but present and able nonetheless.

Smell: Standard for a pale ale, Geary's has some bite in the smell from the hops. Despite the merely average ABV I'm getting whiffs of alcohol dryness coming from the mug. Like Long Trail, this is giving me good contrast; this is a much crisper, sharper scent than most of the maltier beers I've had in the past week or so.

Taste: A very balanced taste, toeing the line pretty well between malt and hops, although near the end of a sip the malt falls off and leaves the bite of the hops a little too much in the foreground. The aftertaste falls heavily on the herbal side, tasting a lot like parsley.

Mouthfeel: Oddly watery. It's made from Maine hard water so it may be the buildup of 20 years of having this from the tap, but I feel like without the bite of the hops this would be just like drinking water out of my sink. It's medium tending towards light bodied which doesn't really help the issue. However I bet if you didn't grow up with Maine well water it's not going to even be noticeable for you.

Drinkability: Decent. It's a little too hoppy to really drink in excess but I had no problem putting back two in a row without killing myself. Because of the relatively light body I'm not really concerned about overfilling, simply more about overtasting.

Overall verdict: B-. I've kind of worked myself into a corner here, it's definitely better than the Shipyard but not quite as good as their own Winter Ale, so here I sit.