When the World Beer Cup awards were announced last month, one winner stood out for an unusual reason. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. won a gold medal for its flagship beer, “Sierra Nevada Pale Ale,” the beer that essentially created the American Pale Ale style.
That was not the remarkable part — it has been a world-class beer since it was first introduced 45 years ago. What was unusual is that the pale ale won gold in the Extra Special Bitter category.
That surprised a lot of people, but it makes sense when you understand both the history of the style and the way styles change over time. It also got me thinking about pale ales in general, which in many ways are the workhorse of the ale brewery, and a near-perfectly balanced beer ideal for many settings.
Pale Ale vs. E.S.B.
First, let’s examine the difference between a pale ale and an E.S.B., short for Extra Special Bitter. The two are quite similar, and once were even considered the same. In England, where they originated, the same ale was called a pale ale if served in a bottle and a bitters if served on draft. Before tap handles were clearly marked, prior to the 1950s, people asked for a bitters, distinguished from the sweeter beer called a mild that was also popular at the time.
Bitters became a generic term, but today we recognize three different types: Ordinary Bitters (often simply “Bitters”); “Best” or “Special Bitters”; and “Extra Special Bitters.” E.S.B. is a relatively new designation, introduced by Fuller’s in 1971. But the initials E.S.B. caught on, first in the U.K., and later in the U.S. Older readers may recall a popular early craft beer called Redhook E.S.B., which is still being brewed today. However, in the early craft beer days, people who didn’t understand the style tended to avoid any beer labeled bitter. So in the U.S., pale ale became the preferred term instead.
Today, there are even more categories and sub-groups. For instance, in this year’s World Beer Cup judging guidelines, there were six pale ale categories, not including all of the IPAs, and two categories of bitters. Overall, the differences between those eight categories are fairly slight and overlap somewhat. They only truly matter in a controlled judging situation, when it’s best to judge similar beers together, and the nuances do matter.
As I see it, style definitions are useful insofar as they set up your expectations for ordering. I know what a pale ale should taste like, and if I order one and it’s black and tastes like a wheat beer, I’m going to be disappointed.
So what is a pale ale, and why is it such a good all-purpose beer? A pale ale is, in a word, balanced. It sits in the sweet spot, with both rich malt flavor and robust hop flavor. When it first appeared, the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was considered quite hop-forward. But today, in the era of the IPA and Double IPA, it seems positively restrained.
Over time, what we expect of beer styles can drift. Brewers are always trying to put their own stamp on a beer, not just re-create somebody else’s beer. To reflect those changes, the guidelines judges use to evaluate beers in competitions undergo minute changes each year.
For instance, today, even though the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale helped to create the style, it’s now ironically a legacy beer that doesn’t fit into those style guidelines. It’s the same beer that was first brewed in 1980, but now, it perfectly fits the sub-category American-style Extra Special Bitter, for which it won that gold medal this year.
Pale Ales to Try
Despite being one of the oldest styles of the craft beer era, pale ales can still be easily found, especially in the Bay Area. Here are a few of my favorites.
Naturally, you can’t go wrong with the original. Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale is still great, and tastes almost exactly the same — albeit maybe even a little better — than when it was introduced. Even as our collective tastes have changed, it remains one of the beers that made many of us fall in love with craft beer, and if you haven’t had one in a while, now is a good time to remember.
Another of my favorites is The Penske File Pale Ale from Faction Brewing in Alameda. Brewmaster Roger Davis has a deft hand with hops, and his Faction Pale Ale is quite good, too, but the Penske File, a West Coast pale ale, is especially delicious.
Also, Paso Robles brewery Firestone Walker’s Double Barrel Ale (DBA) is a sublime take on the original English-style pale ales.
San Francisco’s Cellarmaker Brewing also makes good pale ales, and right now they’re pouring Underneath the Pine and Super Mt. Nelson, their hazy pale ale.
Contact Jay R. Brooks at BrooksOnBeer@gmail.com.
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