Northumberland Ale

Northumberland Ale is produced in Campbellford, Ontario by the excellently named Church Key Brewing Company. It's an ever so slightly hazy pale golden ale that comes in 341mL bottles and pours with a slim layer of white head. Northumberland contains the standard 5% alcohol and has a mild toasted grain aroma. Unfortunately, I found its flavour to be significantly wanting. It's easy-drinking, but doesn't have much oomph in any particular direction. There are faint grain notes that are toasty and quite pleasant, though not bold enough for my tastes. Again, in the finish, there is a subtle hop twist that has potential, but which delivers underwhelming verve.

Northumberland Ale is a refreshing brew, but one which lacks depth. It is certainly an accessible craft beer for drinkers making the switch from a generic marcobrew, but as a self-appointed aficionado, I found it to be a tad dull. This is by no means a bad ale, just much less interesting than some of Church Key's other worthy brews, like their very agreeable West Coast Pale Ale and their excellent Holy Smoke Peat Smoked Ale.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10.