Balter XPA

By now you’ve probably noticed my drink of choice is pale ale, and variants of Pale Ale such as Extra, American, or India Pale Ale. Truth is, in 2015 I had Glandular Fever and found ever since my gut hasn’t been able to tolerate other types of beer. The positive is; Pale Ale was already my drink of choice and it is delicious.

I’ve been hearing about the Balter XPA for over a year now but for some reason haven’t tried it until today. I’m not sure why, it’s had rave reviews every time I’ve heard about it. The can is fairly simple, taking the style of all Balter beers – a square containing their name, a simple smile and the style of beer, in this case XPA. The bottom third of Balter cans is specific to the type of beer, in this case the XPA can is a pleasant turquoise colour. Overall the can isn’t anything amazing, but its pleasant and doesn’t really matter…

From first sip the beer is absolutely superb, a wonderful lightness and fruitiness hits the tongue in spectacular fashion. I was unsure how an ‘extra pale ale’ actually differed from a pale ale prior to drinking this beer but now I can see, it’s hard to explain but the drinkability is increased, there’s a real lightness to the beer which is amazing. Drinking this beer is like drinking sunshine, the fruitiness could be likened to passionfruit and though I’m drinking this on a cold rainy evening it makes me feel like it’s a nice spring day.

I’m expecting a weird or bad aftertaste – that’s the standard with other beers I’ve tried that achieve such a fruitiness. But the after taste never arrives and I’m left with a slight buzz after realising something so easy to drink comes in at 5% alcohol and 1.5 standard drinks per can. I’m acutely aware that beer taste is independent of packaging but, at the risk of sounding like a wanker, I really enjoy the experience of drinking from a great can. I also think this beer could really benefit from being able to hits the nostrils by adopting the full peel off top that Colonial Brewing use on their beers.

4/5

Matt Power
02 June 2018