Of Bikes and Beer: Roller Wars

In an exhibition showing on the second floor of the Allentown Brew Works, a handful of brave souls went head to head on the Lehigh Wheelmen's vintage rollers. Check it out, this is Ryan "The Flask" Pomajevich versus Kurt "The Chappa" Begemann (that's chopper with a South African accent). And if anyone is wondering, that is a Gucci-styled skinsuit on the right.



Then, of course, there was the beer too. I tried a pale ale and red ale with mixed results. While I give the Brew Works credit for hosting bike races, the beers lack consistency.

Copper Kettle Pale Ale
Allentown Brew Works
American Pale Ale

B / 3.7
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | drink: 4

Aside from a being fairly dark red color for a pale ale, this was good beer. The aroma is full of spicy, herbal hops and the flavor has a balance of dry biscuit (think bisquik) malts and more citrus hop flavors. The body is on the light side of medium and the carbonation is crisp enough to make this a good session beer. Worth trying if you stop by the brewpub.

West End Red
Allentown Brew Works
American Amber/Red Ale

C / 2.9
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | drink: 3

In a word, disappointing. The malt somehow manages to hide while an uninspiring and typical of the brew works hops profile dominates the flavor. The hops, to be more specific, are the same grassy, spicy, herbal taste I've recently had in the Copper Kettle Pale Ale and the CH-47 pale ale at the Bethlehem location. I'm guessing the house yeast strain simply acts a bit funny with American hops, but the result here is not good. Pass.