Hopyard Pale: Best of Both Worlds

Hopyard Pale from the Garrison Brewing Company in Halifax, Nova Scotia pours a really nice honey-amber colour with a sizable tan-coloured head that gets retained as a thick film with a collar, but leaves little lacing. This dry-hopped, West Coast-style American pale ale smells of sweet caramel, orange rind and wet flowers, with ripened cherry and black pepper coming through after it warms.

The Only Knock I Have Against this Beer is Its Bottle

The taste of Hopyard Pale starts with an almost salty bitterness. A strong toasted brown bread tone comes through on the tongue and the beer has an unsweetened grapefruit juice flavour in the finish. It’s a bit thin in mouthfeel, but has a creaminess on the tongue thanks to the long-lasting collar and a medium-high carbonation level. The aftertaste is clean and very dry.

The packaging of Hopyard Pale uses a light green background with a bold dark green font outlined in gold in front of the black and white image of a field. The phrase “dry-hopped” is printed in gold on a burgundy ribbon and a description of the beer is printed repeatedly in the background and on the six pack sleeve.

Unfortunately, Hopyard Pale is packaged in macro-style 341 mL bottles that often have a telltale ring indicating they have been reused a number of times and are sealed with frequently hard to remove twist off caps. This is a quality craft beer and should be packaged as such.

Hopyard Pale is a very solid beer that I’ll be sure to try again. It has much in common with the American IPAs it is modelled after, but the dry-hopped citrus notes are more balanced and subtle than other examples and let the beer’s English-style fruit and bread qualities come through. It’s very drinkable and makes a great burger and fries beer.

Type: American Pale Ale
Country: Canada
Region: Nova Scotia, Halifax
Brewery: Garrison Brewing Company
Format Purchased: 6 x 341 mL
Price: $13.95
Alcohol Content: 5.3%