One of two new canned releases from Edwards, Colorado's Crazy Mountain Brewing Company (the other being their Lava Lake Wit). Mountain Livin' Pale Ale has a can design that truly showcases the area in which this brewery calls home and is one of my favorite designs out there. I'm pretty excited to finally get the chance to crack one of these open and try it out. Cheers! 

From the Crazy Mountain site:

"We utilize two types of American hops in such a way that we put the flavor of these hops center stage and let their bitterness fade into the background. The hop forward character of this beer is represented not in its bittering qualities, but in the unique, fruit forward flavor of two new and somewhat experimental American hop varieties. Enjoy this beer with a fresh approach to how a Pale Ale expresses its inner hoppiness."

Here we go...

Pour - caramel color in appearance, almost dark enough to look like an amber or even a brown ale. Big bubbly head on top with some tiny bubble streaking upward. 

Aroma - sticking a nose in this and finding some brown sugar, cake batter, grapefruit, lemon juice and tangerines. Definitely some uniqueness in the aroma of this pale ale.

Taste - toasty malts up front with a citrusy, slightly bitter kick that lingers. That fist sip is a bit of a teaser and the second one really pushes that hop profile more and the sweet, caramel and honey malt flavors are diminished a bit. The tropical fruit and citrus flavors takeover as each sip fades into the one before it. A little different than some of the other pale ales we've tried but in a good way. 

Overall - very solid brew from Crazy Mountain. I was a big fan of their Amber Ale and sort of the way that bands have a certain sound, Crazy Mountain brews their beers a certain way. It's hard to explain but there are some similiarities between their Mountain Livin' Pale Ale and their Amber Ale. We're fans of their beers for sure and the artwork on their cans is fantastic. Looking forward to trying their Lava Lake Wit. 

Note - Crazy Mountain gives 1% of proceeds from sales to Vail Mountain Rescue which is a non-profit group of volunteers that are "trained and prepared to respond to any type of back-country emergency."