Review: Fire Mountain OPA

After our adventure in homebrewing Saturday night, Jesse and I toasted our accomplishment* with a bottle of Fire Mountain’s Oregon Pale Ale (OPA). I first tried OPA during a Fire Mountain tasting at Beer Nuts last month. At the tasting, Co-brewmaster Dave Marliave described it as a cross between an English and an American Pale Ale; containing grains from both locales. Here are the stats.

* “Accomplishment” is used loosely. It is based entirely on the presumption that our beer does not turn out to be a complete disaster and is not supported by any solid evidence.

Fire Mountain OPA
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: 35
TG: 1.008 – 1.010
Hops: Cascade

The first thing I noticed about Fire Mountain’s beer was the vineyard-esque label. Fitting, since the brewery is located in the middle of the Yamhill-Carlton wine region. The next thing I noticed about the OPA was how un-pale the ale was. It poured a dark amber color that shined bright orange when held up to the light. The head was a yellowed white color, tight and foamy.

Immediately Jesse and I both picked up on the strong floral smell; exactly what you would expect from a beer brewed exclusively with Cascade hops. There was also a faint caramel sweetness. I believe Dave mentioned that a small portion of the malts they use are roasted.

The beer tasted a lot like it smelled. It started as a hoppy APA; citrus and flowery. The hops faded in the middle and the beer opened up with a sweet, roasted flavor. The beer finished clean and dry. Despite the dark color and roasted notes, OPA remained very light drinking and crisp. Jesse summed it up in one word, “refreshing.”

Rating this beer is a bit of a challenge. I have been trying to stick with Jeff’s Rating System for my reviews, but Jeff’s system puts a lot of emphases of how well the style is represented. OPA makes this hard, eschewing the style of its namesake and ending up somewhere between an Amber and a Bitter, but hopped-up and light bodied like a Pale. Based solely on my enjoyment of the beer, I would give it a B+.

In fact, I wouldn’t mind seeing some more breweries churn out an OPA style beer; a dry Pale Ale with a small portion of the roasted malts. I am a big fan of hoppy American Ambers like Boont, but after a couple, they start to feel pretty heavy. By dialing back the body, OPA skits this pitfall. It could easily be a session beer…assuming you can afford to session $5.50-6.00 bombers.

And I’ll use that statement as the lead in to my thoughts on the price point. Jesse was commenting about how much he liked the beer when I told him the price tag. We both agreed that $6.00 is a little steep. Fire Mountain priced themselves out of my “daily drinker” bottle range and into the “once in a while” range, which is already brimming with quality competition. They will be duking it out with Pelican and Lompoc the next time I decide to purchase a beer over $5.00, my mental threshold for bombers.

Price aside, I wish the best of luck to the guys at Fire Mountain. Both OPA and Steam Fired Stout (which I will be reviewing soon) are quality beers. As I said in a previous post about Fire Mountain, Dave mentioned that they were deciding between an IPA and a Doppelbock for their next beer. I am pulling for the Doppelbock. We have plenty of IPAs crowding the shelves and a Doppel would be a welcome choice. Besides, Fire Mountain’s by line is “Handcrafted Ales and Lagers • Brewed Old School.” So, they are already in need of a lager to support their statement.

Cheers!
Kevin