Beer Review: Back Forty Beer Co. Naked Pig Pale Ale

It has been a long while since I have posted a review on this page, so I figured I better get on it.  Recently, I hit up a local gas station looking for a refreshing and tasty beer to enjoy after a long day of working in the yard. I was pretty happy to see a lone sixer of Back Forty Beer Co.'s Naked Pig Pale Ale staring back at me.  I sampled this beer for the first time at last years Magic City Brewfest and have had it one more time since, but for some reason I have not had too many chances to pick it up to enjoy at home.  I figured now is as good as any time because I remembered how tasty and refreshing this beer was in the past.. 

So here we are.  As as the beer leaves the bottle and hits the glass it starts building foam.  The head builds to a good 2 1/2 fingers of pillowy, white goodness that rests on top of the orange/copper colored body.  The body is pretty clear and vibrant in color with a pretty active carbonation moving around in there.  The carbonation is just feeding the head wonderfully, creating some great retention that lasts the entire experience.  A fair amount of lacing notches the glass with horizontal brush strokes all the way down. 

The aroma is simply great.  It starts off with an aromatic burst of citrus hops.  I am picking up on notes of grapefruit and lemon meat and zest.  I am also getting some floral hops notes as well.  The hops have some bite in the aroma but they have a touch of sweetness as well.  The malts add to that sweetness lightly with some bready/biscuity presence.  This cuts the hops a bit in the nose, but does not add too much sweetness.  At times, it is hard to keep my nose out of the glass because this smells so good.  Smells like summer.

The taste is actually a lot like the nose.  Getting that grapefruit and a little bit of orange coming out from the hops.  The hops have a pretty good amount bitterness and sharpness to them, but it is nothing out of hand.  Once again, the biscuity malt presence cuts that bite just a bit, leaving the flavor smooth and refreshing with just a touch of bitterness.  It still leans toward bitter, but it has that easy drinking level of bitterness that is closer to the area of balanced.

The mouthfeel on this brew is light, but it still has a creaminess and slickness to it.  You can feel a little touch of the hop oils hanging out from time to time on you palate.  The carbonation comes across as a little on the high side, but it makes for a crisp and refreshing experience.  The alcohol is low but it still has a little bit of warmth at times.  The palate is challenged with a  mild bitterness, but it is not lingering or crazy.  The aftertaste is all citrus hops. 

This beer was exactly what I was looking for after a long day in the yard.  It hit the spot so well that I continued to drink it through dinner and it paired up nicely with some pork chops stuffed with garlic and cheese.  It is an enjoyable beer that looks, smells, and tastes great in my opinion.  It has enough flavor and hops to challenge the palate, but not enough to destroy it.  It is incredibly refreshing and I do believe that this will probably become my go to beer of summer this year.  It just has everything I am looking for in an easy drinking beer to cool me off after a long day. 

Back Forty is in the process of opening up a brewery in Alabama (they have been contract brewing out of the state up until this point), so make sure that you support a local business by drinking local in order to ensure that they get up and running and stick around.  Drinking local makes it so that our Alabama breweries continue to exist and more are created.  So, go out and give Back Forty Beer Co. and Naked Pig Pale Ale a shot.  It is available in quite a few places around Birmingham and the surrounding areas (click here to find out where).  Prost!