MOONLIGHT BREWING’s “YOUNG PALE ALE”

Remember MOONLIGHT BREWING? There’s the semi-legendary one-man operation based in San Francisco’s north bay area, a fella named Brian Hunt, and his beers are out of this world. They taste like hand-crafted, small-batch, experimental beers – if it’s true that you can actually taste such things. His beers are only available in Northern California, draft only, and while it’s pretty easy to find a pint of DEATH & TAXES or TWIST OF FATE, rare is the day that one sees anything else from Moonlight Brewing in their local beverage dispensary. The other night at CAFÉ BIERE in Emeryville, I was fortunate enough to grab a pint of his YOUNG PALE ALE, a beer so unknown that it’s not even listed on the Beer Advocate/Rate Beer sites yet. It is entirely possible that these words I am typing at this second are the first words ever digitally recorded about it. (Shudder). Wow, did you just feel that??

MOONLIGHT YOUNG PALE ALE is an orange-tinged, very hoppy pale ale. It’s spicy as all get out. You ever tried THREE FLOYDS ALPHA KING before? It’s that kind of pale ale – the one that’s really a strong, intense India Pale ale hiding behind the “American pale ale” category. Malts were interacting with spices interacting with big-ass hops – wow. This is the best beer I’ve had from Moonlight in a couple of years, and I even had my all-time fave pilsner REALITY CZECH just the other evening. I hope this one turns up in more locales in 2010 because you’re gonna want this one. 8.5/10.