Side Piece is an American-style pale ale with 5.8% ABV from Philadelphia’s Manayunk Brewing Co. Manayunk is clearly distinguishing this American pale from its often seen cousin, the Indian pale ale, with a deliberately piny tasting experience.
Side Piece pours to a cloudy pale orange color that produces a dense, white head that lingers and leaves plenty of lacing units wake. Straight out of the can you know this is a pale with an extremely evident floral and citrus infused scent that blooms beautifully in the glass.
This Manayunk offering is very hop forward, that is not to say there’s an abundance of bitterness up front. There is however plenty of pine flavor to go with the citrus undertones.
Any bitterness waits until the finish where it sticks to your tongue and produces a lingering flavor of the earlier pine. Manayunk has taken a couple classic hops like Centennial and Columbus and paired it with an in vogue hop like Mosaic that will be sure to impress all fans of the style.
