Southern Star Pine Belt Pale Ale:
Howdy partners and welcome back to another chapter in the saga of the beer review. Today we stay in my home state (the Lone Star State to all you who are curious) and look at the brewery that has made probably the best domestic stout out there: Southern Star Brewing. The brewery is based out of Conroe which is North of Houston and is where the traffic begins or ends, depending on your direction of travel.  Southern Star’s Pine Belt Pale Ale is their only year round hoppy beer and in tall boy can.  The beer pours an amber color with a bleached white head that settles to a thin film while leaving nice lacing and a nose of subtle citrus.  The initial taste is a strong bitter hop with a touch of citrus as an undertone flavoring and a mid tongue of subtle hop notes and hints of pine.   The back end is a mellow sour hop that moves to a strong, albeit brief, skunk after taste.  Not the best pale ale I’ve had and after tasting their Bombshell Blonde (review coming soon) and Buried Hatchet Stout (which is so amazing it’s hard to describe with words alone) I wanted more, but I got an entry level pale ale.  Don’t get me wrong, this is a good beer, but not in my taste profile though I’m glad I tried it this once, but I won’t be going back to it without overwhelming circumstances.