Name: 4 Pines Pale Ale

Style: American Pale Ale

Country: Australia

ABV: 5.1%

Beer Description: 4 Pines Brewing Company is an Australian craft brewery making beer in Sydney. Named after the Manly pines of their original brewpub, this brewery has been expanding since their humble beginnings in 2008. 4 Pines Pale Ale is of the American variety and is one of their flagship beers. The brewery do a good range of beers that are on pretty wide release around Australia, but it’s the pale ale and the kolsch that should be easiest to find.

And it’s a good thing the 4 Pines Pale Ale is relatively easy to find. It’s a nice “drinking beer;” a beer that you just keep a six-pack of in the fridge to sip on over dinner, or bring to a barbecue. Not to say that this is a boring beer, but 4 Pines have set out to make a refreshing American pale ale and they’ve succeeded.

As pales go, this one is actually quite amber. The drinker wouldn’t be faulted for assuming this is an amber ale on the pour. The beer does tread the line between pale and amber ale, but that’s not a bad thing. They have put some crystal in, and, by the look of the beer, probably a decent amount. We won’t be surprised if this beer is on the sweet side.

4 Pines have kept very stereotypical American with their hop choices. With Simcoe, Amarillo, Cascade, and Citra used, there’s not much more that they could have added to make the beverage any more American!

And yes, this beer smells like an American pale ale. It does what it says on the bottle with a fresh hit of pine on the first aroma. Some grapefruit gets in there as well. It’s a scent we’re all used to in American style beers. The beer takes a bit of a turn here as the sweeter elements of the malts come through. This is a little different from the style, but sets the beer apart from so many other American pale ales out there.

This theme continues in the taste. While 4 Pines have let their pale ale come in at 35 IBU, it feels a bit more bitter than that (for those who don’t understand why, check out What are IBUs). The grapefruit comes through hard in the taste to create a fair amount of sourness. But not in a sour beer style sour, it’s a grapefruit sour that is most definitely from the hops. From there, sweetness continues a little bit to offset the other flavours in the beer.

As mentioned at the beginning of this review, this is a nice beer to simply sit and enjoy. Trying to drill down and analyse it has almost done it a disservice. It’s not a beer that has been made to be wanked over, it’s a beer that was made to simply be enjoyed. Yes, it’s a craft beer, but it’s nice to go back and remember that craft beer needs to be about the beer. Sometimes the simpler ones are better.

This is a great beer to just keep in the fridge and enjoy when a beer is needed. Or a refreshing beverage at the end of the day. There’s a lot this beer can do. Give it a go.

Go to more American Pale Ale reviews.

Go to more 4 Pines beer.