Pale horse

Ghost Town Brewing — Oakland, CA

4 May 2021 · Stephen

West Coast IPA Ghost Town Brewing

6.8% ABV

Clear golden Color

Contributing Factors

Presentation ✓

Character ✓

Experience ✓

Return –

3 / 4 A solid effort

Tasting Notes

Appearance Clear golden, bright with a persistent white head. Classic West Coast IPA presentation — no haze, confident and clean in the glass.

Aroma Nelson leads and announces itself unmistakably — white grape, tropical fruit, and that distinctive wine-like quality that sets it apart from every other hop variety in the American or New Zealand catalog. Mosaic adds raspberry and berry underneath, and the diesel note Ghost Town mentions is real: a resinous, slightly catty dankness from the Nelson that hovers around the edges of the aroma. One drinker describes it as balanced, soft grain, citrus, bright, pine, and earthy hops — and that tracks, with the Nelson white grape quality adding a dimension that purely American hop bills can't produce.

Palate Medium-full body, crisp and clean as the West Coast IPA format demands. The raspberry and white grape character carries through the middle — fruit-forward but not soft or pillowy, with a firm hop presence building behind it. Another drinker notes it's bitey and crisp, a solid West Coast IPA — and that's exactly right. The Nelson dankness and diesel quality build through the sip, anchoring the fruit in something more complex and resinous.

Finish Long, dry, and assertive. The Nelson white grape and diesel character linger well after the sip alongside the Mosaic berry, with the bitterness sustained and clean. Drier and more resinous than Locust's citrus-lime finish, more wine-grape and dank than Inhume's pine-forward close. Pale Horse has its own identity on the finish, and Nelson is why.

The Verdict

The fourth horseman of the Ghost Town IPA apocalypse arrives on Nelson and Mosaic, and it's a genuinely distinctive combination. Pale Horse is Ghost Town's most distinctive IPA — Nelson and Mosaic is a combination that produces flavors no other hop pairing can replicate. Raspberry, white grape juice, diesel. Deafening, as promised. Get on.

— Stephen · Contributing Factor Brewing · 4 May 2021