Seeing Ineedaride dig up that (four? year-old) post reminded me that even though I used to really like Flying Dog pale, I haven't had one in years. That made me want to go through an APA tasting, so I went to the store and got five different pales. I had my gf pour them into taster glasses and then bring them in to me on a tray so I wouldn't know which was which. Not quite Wookie blind style, but close enough for me. A quick disclaimer: since I work for Yazo, I'm not at all impartial and was able to pick it out without even tasting it. I'll still give my notes, but as a coworker says, "This beer tastes like work."
On to the beers. The five American pale ales I bought were
Stoudt's, out of PA,
Flying Dog, out of MD now,
Yazoo, from TN,
BBC, from KY, and
Saranac Brewing, from NY.
Here they are as arranged and tasted.
The far left is Yazoo. It had the least head and head retention. The aroma is mildly of hops and also some sweet malt. The taste starts with the malt, a lightly toasty, kinda bready flavor. Then the hops mingle in and balance with bitterness and a bit of citrusy flavor. The finish is fairly dry with the hops cleaning things up. Even when the fridge is full of beer from other places, a lot of times I'll still reach for ol' Yazoo pale. It's just a nice, very sessionable APA.
Second from left, without ID since I didn't know either. Not much hops in the aroma, a touch of cascades maybe? and not a whole lot else. Taste is definitely on the sweeter side, with an almost caramely malt note. There's bitterness there, but not a whole lot of it. The end is also some lingering malt sweetness. In case you can't tell from the pic, its definitely darker copper in color than the one before it.
Middle beer, maybe a touch darker than the previous in color, but the two are close and the two darkest. Aroma is strongly of hops, with a lot of pine/woodsy smells and maybe some background citrus. Taste is overwhelmingly hoppy. The bitterness is right upfront, lasts though, and is borderline astringent. The malt makes a brief appearance on first contact, but that's about it.
Fourth beer is the lightest in color. The smell is pretty nice, a mingling of toasty malt and American hops. The taste is right in line with the aroma, a very nice malt flavor to start, like taking a bite out of a golden-light brown piece of toast, that flows into the balancing bitterness of the hops. Not overly bitter, but enough to start erasing the malt flavor some and bring out grapefruit and pine flavor. The beer finishes fairly dry and the hops bring enough flavor to help clean the palate. Really drinkable.
Fifth and last beer, darker than fourth for sure but overall middle of the road. Aroma is fairly similar to the last beer, though, with both malt breadiness and American hops in there. Taste also is somewhat similar, although the malt seems to take a bit more of an assertive role in this one. A touch sweeter, as it doesn't seem to finish as dry, and a touch maltier, deeper toast/biscuit flavors. That might also be a bit less bitterness from the hops, though. Overall a good beer for sure.
So in summary, I practically subsist on Yazoo, so yeah. Beer two was definitely the most malt-focused, with the hops being pretty background, from bittering to flavor to aroma. The third beer was the complete opposite. If I didn't know better, I'd almost say IPA with the bitterness and hop aroma. Fourth beer, really well-balanced, pleasing and drinkable. Fifth beer, pretty close to the same as the fourth, with the difference being in malt/hop balance.
And now, the reveal:
From left to right, the bottles match up with the tasting order. Nice to see that even though they've moved, and even though it has been years since I've had one, Flying Dog still makes a really nice American pale.