Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Review: Left Hand Stranger American Pale Ale

First off, I love the name.  Someone over at Left Hand Brewing (@lefthandbrewing) has a great sense of humor with this one... very subtle.  My good friend Danielle Wheeler brought me this bottle from either the Atlanta area or Nashville... I really can't remember but I know she was up that way!  The closest places to find Left Hand to Baton Rouge are Texas, Alabama, or the Florida panhandle.

I've tried and written about several Left Hand beers before, notably a post earlier this year about the Warrior IPA, Wake Up Dead Imperial Stout, and the Chainsaw Strong Ale.   I enjoyed all of those and I've enjoyed previous beers from Left Hand that I never got around to writing about.  This one, though... I did not enjoy.  
 
As I typically do, I poured from the 12 oz. bottle into a pint glass.  The beer is a hazy deep golden color, which is much lighter than expected for an APA. Not much head and there's really not much retention either.  So far, this one is weak.

This beer smells a little off... it's grassy and not much malt to it. The hops aren't even too strong. It's very odd for an APA, and not tasty at all.  

This must be misbottled or gone bad, the taste is nothing like an APA at all. Tastes a little skunked, and more like a light lager than anything else. Bizarre, I have to assume this one is bad, because Left Hand is better than this.

My Rating: D
BeerAdvocate: B (More evidence I got a bad one...)
 
I need to find another one of these in Houston so I can compare... some things in life get three strikes, but for me, beer gets two.  If I grab a second bottle and it's like this first one, then I'll never need to pick up a Stranger APA again.

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