Endurance Pale Ale, Endurance Brewing Co., Ipswich, MA

"Hello Darkness, my old friend; I've come to talk with you again." An appropriate opening lyric for this was the song that popped into my head when I walked into the bar and saw Endurance Pale Ale on tap. A few years ago, I received a mystery pack of beers for Christmas, and this was one of them. Now the picture above doesn't do it justice, but go to the website and check out the story of Endurance Pale Ale, it's great. After reading the side of the bottle, I chose this as the first beer from the mystery pack I'd try. At this point my beer rotation was strictly Busch Light, Bud Light and Harpoon IPA, but this mystery box and the Endurance Pale led me down a path not previously taken. The Endurance has a crisp citrus taste. The hops bitter the beer just enough to keep you on your toes and to distinguish it from its weaker British Pale Ale brethren. The ABV is not available for this beer, but I would guess it's about 5 if not 5.5%. The Endurance gets a solid 3.5 ranking.

Interesting side note, the Mystery Pack above also had my first Dale's Pale Ale? Best Christmas present ever? Perhaps…although Nintendo may have something to say about that.