Alpha King - Three Floyds Brewing, Munster

This bottle of Three Floyds' Alpha King was actually a left over bottle from an afternoon beer gathering I attended a few weeks back. One of the guys had recently been in Chicago and brought back a couple bottles of Alpha King to share with the unfortunate masses here who aren't able to buy Three Floyds' right off the shelves. This was the fourth of about a dozen beers we had that after noon and I remember it being quite good. Hoppy but very very flavorful in a way that didn't rely on hoppy bitterness to get your attention. I've been holding off on opening this last bottle of Alpha King for some time, thinking that it wouldn't live up to what I remembered. Well, I've drank my way through about 3/4 of this bottle and I'm just going to put this right out there... Three Floyds' Alpha King is the best Pale Ale I've ever had.

Pale Ales are becoming a style I prefer more and more, which is a weird thing for me to say because I really don't like beers that are overly hopped... like many Pale Ales are. I think there's a fine line between being well hopped and too bitter. If a beer is more bitter than I like, it just isn't enjoyable. The Pale Ales I appreciate the most are the ones that are well balance, having something more than just hops to round out the beer so it isn't one dimensional. Alpha King does this masterfully, there's so much flavor in this beer that I hardly noticed all those high alpha hops at first. The hops are unmistakable but they don't monopolize your taste buds.

Pouring this bottle of Three Floyds' Alpha King into my pint glass I knew it was going to be different than other Pale Ales I'd had before. The Alpha King has an orangish bronze color, darker than most Pale Ales but not totally uncharacteristic of the style. The beer settles into the glass even darker and develops a heft light tan head which is reduced to the consistency of suds by the time you sit down to drink it. Lacing is minimal.

The aroma of the Alpha King is pretty simple, it's a grassy hop and dandelion mix with caramel malt and a good deal of grapefruit. Interesting but, again, not entirely uncharacteristic of the style. What really sets this beer apart from the others is its flavor.

Three Floyds must have put a metric ton of caramel malt into this beer. When you drink the Alpha King the first and last thing you notice are the sweet caramel malt flavors. Sandwiched in there is a citrusy hop flavor that gives a kick to this Pale Ale. With any great quantity of hops you'll get a fair bit of bitterness in the beer. There's a little in the Alpha King but it never distracts from those caramel malts.

I'll say it again, Alpha King is the best Pale Ale I've had to date. It's a great caramel malted example of a hoppy Pale Ale that doesn't take things too far. This is a hoppy beer I could drink any and every day of the week, it's hearty enough I'd drink it in the winter but still light enough and so well balanced I'd enjoy it in the summer as well. If you are lucky enough to live in an area where Alpha King is available you should definitely be drinking it. Whether you are crazy about hops or only tolerate them as much as I do, Three Floyds' Alpha King will definitely make you stop and revaluate what make a Pale Ale great.