Back with a bang or back with a splutter...
Brewery
Mash Gang
Name
Transcendence
Style
DDH Pale Ale
ABV
0.5%
Well, the world reopened up to us Brits last summer and perhaps unsurprisingly, O4TR dropped a little bit off radar. There were too many long-overdue beers to be had with friends and the writing suffered in tandem with the heads the morning after.
However, we are back or more accurately on the path back via some non-alcs for the obligatory January health-kick (as if that will save us!!) and I'm reviewing this jazzy
looking pale from the London-based NOLO craft brewers - Mash Gang. This is the first solo MG beer I've tried, having had a low-ABV fruited Berliner Weisse collab they did with Northern Monk last year which was decent from memory, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they're about. I picked this up for a fairly reasonable £2.59 from Wise Bartender (a great webby for AF stuff - check it out) and was brimming with optimism that this might scratch that craft itch that had been gathering pace for the last 11 days.
I will start by saying the picture somewhat flatters and this still poured thinner than your usual "full-fat" pale, as is often the first stumbling block for these low-and-no beers. However, the nose offered some intrigue - a sort of jumble of lagerish, bready and slightly floral notes with some grapefruit and (oddly) szechuan pepper!?
Without further ado, I plunged in and it was pretty much the same flavours coming through on the palate. My issue, as with most of the non-alcs, was that the flavours were flat! Whereas I hoped this would provide the bright tropical burst and slightly bitter resinous after-hit I would usually associate with a craft pale that's gone through the double dry-hop treatment, the flavours didn't go much further than say a Heineken Zero or some of Brewdog's rather average non-alcs. Looking at the ingredients list, Chilli is named which explains the very slight peppery whiff and if I squint hard enough, I can probably just detect a tingle of chilli warmth on the gob - this is a good touch for me but not enough to rescue this beer from the claws of mediocrity!! Everything just need dialling up which is a running theme with these AFs - I guess the question is whether it's even possible to dial these up or it's an impossible task?
Whilst this beer certainly isn't going to become my go-to AF of choice (which is looking like Guinness 0.0) it won't stop me trying MG's other offerings and it has gone some way (if not very much) towards keeping me pacified and off the jars as I try to have an easy January and undo some of the Christmas damage.
Score - 2.5/5
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