By Iron Chef Leftovers
One of the things that you can usually count on from NW Peaks, in addition to some fine beers, is that one, if not both of their house beers will be on tap. I have previously reviewed Redoubt Red here, so it is time for a review of Eldorado Pale.
From the NW Peaks Website:
The name. The mountain. Eldorado is a majestic mountain and stands at8,869′, the 25th tallest peak in the state. Many hikers will be intimately familiar with cascade pass trail at the end of the Cascade River road. The commonly used climbers path leaves the road about 4 miles short of the cascade pass trail head. The relative burly trail climbs several thousand feet through forest, talus, and rock leading to the Eldorado glacier with great views of the summit and the rest of the cascade river basin. While these views are excellent the real treats come at the top of the eldorado glacier where you get views of the Klawatti-Inspiration-Mcallister icecap and is knife-edge summit ridge. While I have done the standard approach/route, the second time I climbed Eldorado we took the “alternative approach” from Pyramid Lake trailhead. On this trip, Eldorado’s mountainBeer partner was the first peak we climbed, Eldorado was the last peak 5 days later, ending one of my favorite trips to the backcountry.
The Beer. In this part of the country, pale ales and IPAs don’t need any introduction. There are so many examples of the style, which run the gamut from being nicely balanced to overly hop forward. We made a pale ale with a light malt backbone and nice bitterness that would support and balance an unmistakably emphasized hop aroma and flavor. We used a few more common varieties of hops so that none would dominate and would blend together to give a nice citrusy and floral aroma.
Malts: Pale, ESB, Wheat. Hops: Apollo, cascade, chinook, centennial ABV: ~5.25%
The beer pours golden/straw in color. There is plenty of grain and malt on the nose with hints of hops hiding in the background, leaving a very clean and light impression. There is an extremely pleasant palate on this beer – a slight malty sweetness followed by the grain. The finish is surprisingly long, with light notes of bitterness and a slightly floral character. The finish is also very crisp with notes of light apple interspersed with the hops.
Eldorado Pale is light enough to please a pilsner drinker, but with enough complexity to keep the beer geek happy.
NW Peaks Eldorado Pale discovers itself with 3 lost cities out of 5.
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