Written by Smuttynose Shoals Pale Ale comes to us from Smuttynose Brewing Co in Portsmouth, NH. As I was doing my sleuthing on this particular 5.5% ABV American Pale Ale, I learned that Shoals Pale Ale had won a Gold Medal at the 2003 GBBF (Great British Beer Festival) as ‘Best American Beer’. That’s quite an honor I would think!
Let’s see if it lives up to our own very high (cough-cough) standards!
The Shoals Pale Ale pours into my pint glass looking like any typical APA. It’s a tough cloudy and has an appealing coppery color. The head is also typical of an APA, it creates that frothy type head that hoppy beers tend to make.
The aroma is also typical of the style, to me anyway. Its got something of a piney type of thing going, and there’s also some sweet notes to it as well – I’m going to go with mild caramel at the moment. Overall, the aroma is subtle and nothing really jumps out at you as the “smell me first!” ingredient.
The taste is also, similarly typical American Pale Ale and like the smell nothing really jumps out as out-of-whack. You have the piny hop flavor primarily, but its well balanced with a nice amount of malt and a pleasing bitter finish. Again, nothing stands out here, but I find this Smuttynose beer to be quite enjoyable in its own unpretentious way.
The body was pretty good too – definitely not a watery beer and it had a nice slick mouthfeel and left with a slightly bitter and dry finish.
This beer, to me is like an old reliable car. Maybe its got a fuddy-duddy label of some beat-up shack and utterly boring font for a label. Not flashy, not trying too hard to be something it isn’t. But, what it seems to be is an excellent APA that does everything right without all the excess bling.
I like New England brewers, but I often overlook the Smuttynose beers because I simply don’t notice them on the shelves. I see them, but I’m not compelled to buy them. Looking way back, I did seem to enjoy the Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale, and I’m about to give this APA a 3.5 star rating which is pretty good!
Rating: 
Maybe I’ll start looking harder at what Smuttynose Brewing has to offer! I think I might have been denying myself some very good beer!
I had leftovers from a Smuttynose sampler we bought for a work party, and this beer was my favorite of the bunch. I actually bought it a couple of times after that. Not off the hook, but a nice and tasty pale ale that won’t make you dizzy real quick (it’s sessionable).
@Jim – I’d agree completely. I need to keep this one in mind when I’m looking for a hoppier session beer.
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I have a 6 pack of this sitting in my basement. Just picked it up on a trip to CT this past weekend. Smuttynose makes some tasty beers!
@John – go ahead and break it out! Looks to be a hot weekend, so a refresher like this should be nice. Check back and let us know what you thought!
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Hm… you made this pale ale sound as perfectly mediocre as I can imagine. Not sure if I’ll be adding it to my “must buy” list anytime soon haha
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@Royce – I guess what I was trying to get across was that I thought this beer was good without being extreme or pretentious. A nice APA that does everything right but doesn’t necessarily stand out either. Don’t know how else to explain it! If you’re a fan of American Pale Ales, its a good choice.
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Hey Scott, nice review. I definitely think that Smuttynose is one of the best breweries in New England (I live in MA). Their IPA is a shining example of the style, their Robust Porter is delicious and their Big Beer Series is amazing almost across the board. They also do a Short-Batch series that is super limited and tap only, but I think that pretty much stays fairly local.
If you guys get the Big Beer Series, check out Baltic Porter, Imperial Stout or Farmhouse Ale. Also, their Big A double IPA (was in the Big Beer Series) is now in 4-packs and is delicious if you like that style.
@Jeff – thanks! I do see their Robust Porter and their IPA in my area. I don’t think I’ve ever seen their Big Beer series though.
I get up to New England a few times a year so I’ll check for some of those next time as they sound interesting! Aren’t they affiliated with Portsmouth Brewing somehow?
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@Scott – Yeah, Peter Egelston owns both Portsmouth Brewery and Smuttynose. They are completely separate companies in a legal sense, but they “play nice together,” and you can almost always find Smuttynose stuff on tap at Portsmouth Brewery.
Basically Portsmouth Brewery is Peter’s brewpub (non-distributing) and Smuttynose is Peter’s distributing production brewery. They have completely different staffs and brewers and make different beers. The only things in common they have is that they both make super-high quality beers and are owned by Peter.
@Jeff – Thanks, I thought there was a connection somehow but I wasn’t positive. I have to make it to a Kate the Great day one of these years! Have you ever been to one?
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@Scott – Yeah, I’ve made it to 2 KtG days… and probably never will again. This year, if you weren’t in line by something like 5am you didn’t get a ticket for bottles. If you want to get it on tap, by all means check out the day, but it’s pretty loony lately. It’s a delicious beer, though!