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Beer Talk

Centennial Pale Ale

Coeur d’Alene Brewing Co.

Available: ID

• Charles Finkel

  Originally brewed to celebrate Idaho’s Centennial. Literally “pale,” the color is straw with greenish overtones and a fine, light-ish head that disappears a little too quickly. A nose of newly-mown hay after a rain contrasts sharply with the dry palate—slightly malty and vegetive with a clean, fresh aftertaste. I like my pale ales a little bigger, but it wasn’t bad with wild salmon bathed in a spicy coconut sauce, Idaho potatoes au gratin and fresh organic green beans.

• Michael Jackson

  I love the big, unfolding, aromas: cocoa , black Chicopee, coffee, caramel, Terry's Chocolate Oranges, fresh strawberries and cream. This beer promises so much, with such astonishingly sinful ease, but it can't deliver. What happened to the malts that provided the nose candy? Fermented away? Aii I got was burnt toast. those

• Stan Hieronymus

  Oh, how times change. In 1988, this beer (called T.W. Fisher’s then) was the first to win the Pale Ale category at the Great American Beer Festival, just ahead of Anchor Liberty. These days you’d expect a beer with Centennial on its label to showcase the hop with that name, exhibiting plenty of grapefruit character and a crisp dryness that marks American pale ales. The beer I received began with only muted hops to balance a nose of fruit and honey butter. It’s slick on the palate, with caramel/butterscotch dominating. A short finish doesn’t improve the experience.