XT 13 Pacific Red Ale
XT 13 Pacific Red Ale (500ml, 4.5% ABV) Sounding more like a 1920s numberplate than a beer, it’s another bottle from the enigmatic XT brewery, this time from their ‘special’ (rather than ‘core’) range. One thing I didn’t realise about their labels: the background is colour-coded, so you can tell what the beer will look like from the bottle. Having said that, a few of the beers in their special range seem to break with this system – either that or they really are brewing green beer … The hops in XT 13 are a thoroughly international affair: Columbus from the US, Galaxy from Australia and Wakatau from New Zealand, hence the ‘Pacific’ of the title. The list of malted barleys (or ‘grain bill’ as a brewer would have it) is also thorough, with pale, red, caramalt and crystal malts, plus some wheat.
There’s fruit in the taste, peaches and limes, but unlike your typical New World IPA they’re not at the forefront. Instead, they hide behind a mask of lip-smacking black pepper. A juicy aftertaste rounds out an unusual but thoroughly satisfying beer. Written by Richard Salsbury |