A Long Way Around to Mirror Pond Pale Ale

I’m going to do something I never thought I’d see myself do: I’m going to throw my support wholeheartedly behind a pale ale. 

You see, there are whole styles of beer that I generally avoid just because they seem, well, wimpy and bland next to their most similar cousins in the beer style galaxy. 

Pale Ales are one of these - why bother when you can have an IPA? Although, I guess this begs the question, why bother having an IPA when you can have an Imperial IPA?  I think there is a good answer to this second question though, which is that sometimes you want the citric or piney or floral flavor of an IPA without the extreme bitterness of an Imperial IPA.  It’s sort of a aromatic hops vs. bittering hops debate.

Another example is brown ales.  Sure, I guess they are good, but come on, wouldn’t you rather have a porter or a stout?  Or an American strong ale? Or a spiced brown ale?  Something with a little taste to jazz things up?  Plain brown ales seem to me about as boring as you can get on the darker end of the spectrum.

But I’m going off on tangents here because my point in sitting down to write this post was to focus on one pale ale that I can always count on, and that’s Mirror Pond Pale Ale by Deschutes. 

It was a night of many beers, though I hadn’t intended for it to end up that way.  I had gone to Bar Crudo, one of my new favorite places to drink beer (great beer list, very knowledgeable and friendly staff, and great friendly atmosphere at the bar).  I always try something new when I go there, and almost always walk away with a new favorite.  The first time it was the Gouden Carolus Tripel, the second time it was the Gulden Draak. 

The Gouden Carolus Tripel was just exactly what I want out of a Tripel.  It was highly carbonated with sparkling bubbles of CO2 and a great foamy head.  The fruity smell was wafting out of the glass before I even got close enough to sip it.  I think this is what really draws me in to beers, if I can smell them before I taste them, I know it’s probably going to be good.  It’s got the punch and body of a high alcohol beer, but it tastes delicate, like this combination of citrus, apples, an light spiciness might dissipate if you’re not nice to it.  It was sweet, but in the way fruit is sweet, not in the way marshmallow peeps are sweet, which it to say, in a pleasant way, not the somewhat sickening way I sometimes associate with oh, say, lambics. 

The Gulden Draak is another beast entirely, well not so much entirely since it is also Belgian, highly alcoholic, and very, very good.  It’s a darker beer, a medium brown with a reddish tinge and another great (typically Belgian) head.  It has a lot of things going on at once, which is what I most like about it.  You can roll it around on your tongue for many seconds before swallowing.  At one moment you’ll taste the same orange and apple fruitiness that might be similar to the Gouden Carolus above, the next moment it’s lightly burnt/candied sugar, the next moment it’s peppery spice.  It’s a medium to full bodied beer, unlike the Carolus above, and fully satisfying.  Also, though it’s 10.5% alcohol by volume, but you’d never know it, which is the big danger with this one. 

But that’s enough about prior trips to Bar Crudo, at some point I have to get back on track to my Mirror Pond review.  This time I had two great beers, but neither one has displaced the ones I compare it to in my head. 

First, there was the Reinaerts Flemish Wild Ale, which is a Belgian Strong Pale Ale.  This is a beer fermented with wild Belgian yeasts, from the Brettanomyces family, unlike the typical brewer’s yeasts used to make most beers and lagers.  People often describe the smell of a Brett beer as “barnyard-like”, “horse-y”, etc.  Tim described this beer as “earthy” when he served it to me, which I think is probably a better term to use marketing-wise (who wants a truly horsey beer?) and to fit what the beer actually tasted like.  I think it is a very good example of a Brett style beer, in that if you wanted to know what the flavors of Brett yeast are, you can find them here.  That said, it wasn’t one of my all time favorites.  I like that it was sour, but would probably go with an Oud Bruin or Flanders Red instead if I wanted a good sour beer.  I guess it was just that I’m not a big enough fan of the Brett taste for it to be the main draw for me in a beer.  Since the Reinaerts was pale there wasn’t the malt complexity going on that you find in the darker Flemish-style beers.  Which is why I moved on to….

The Rodenbach Grand Cru, which is a Flanders Red Ale.  I split a 750ml with and friend and at this point was eating a good deal of bread and butter to try to tide over this beer pre-dinner.  I have to say, though I haven’t tasted them head to head and my sense is that most others would disagree with me, that I think I prefer the Duchesse de Bourgogne.   The Rodenbach was tart, wine-y, and complex, but so is the Duchesse.  I think the difference is that the Rodenbach was very smooth and all the flavors seemed well integrated and mixed, whereas the Duchesse seems more rough-and-tumble with different notes popping up more suddenly and unevenly.   I very much liked it though and am eager to try it head to head with other Flemish reds to see what I really think when I (A) Haven’t had other beers already that night, and (B) can taste the comparable beers side by side.

Which brings us to the real point of my review, the Mirror Pond.  We left Bar Crudo intending to have some sushi at Akiko’s but found it closed even though it was only about 9:15pm.  So we walked around the corner to the Irish Bank, not wanting to wander around too long and miss our chance to eat.  I had a very decent beef stew that came with a ginormous scoop of mashed potatoes on top that was somewhat remarkable in how spherical it was.  I’m not sure how I feel about unnaturally shaped potato mounds, but the stew was tasty and filling nonetheless.  So, I ordered a Mirror Pond, which I probably didn’t need at this point on a Wednesday night, but that’s what the first couple of beers will do to you, is egg you on to have another. 

While all of the Belgian beers reviewed above are eccentric and special and exciting, I don’t think the Mirror Pond is, which may have you wondering why it is the focus of this post.  But it’s dependable and a standout beer in a much maligned style and something I could probably drink any time, anywhere.  Sitting on the sofa after a long day of work?  Have a Mirror Pond.  Out to a fancy dinner with relatives? Have a Mirror Pond.    Barbeque on a friend’s roof deck on a hot day? Have a Mirror Pond or two. 

Again, as with the Gouden Carolus above, it’s the aroma of the Mirror Pond that makes me such a fan.  It has great citrus hops flavors that are way more prominent than in other beers with comparable or higher IBUs.    It’s not sweet and there is some hop bitterness, so this is more of an orange zest flavor than an orange slice flavor. 

That was it for me that night, and a good thing too.