Headwaters Pale Ale

Essentially my Alma Mater of craft beer, Victory Brewing, recently released a new year round beer to celebrate their 15th anniversary.

Headwaters Pale Ale is Victory's 1st year round pale ale. Yes, that's correct. A brewery that has been a dominate force from coast to coast in America for 15 years just added the staple that is the Pale Ale.

Hop Devil is a wicked IPA, Storm King, a killer stout, Golden Monkey...you know where I am going with this, but no PA.

So taking a bolder step then most could (skipping small batch limited edition) they plugged this new beer into the line-up and went for it. To me, this seems to be a fairly clever strategic move.

Headwaters is @ 5% abv, where as most of Victory's beer's are 7 and up - so basically they added a beautifully aromatic ale with a serious German malt backbone that makes it a drinkable and almost familiar tasting beer, with insidious potential for converting everyday Bud types that like German beers but not the extreme's typically found in the craft industry.

Personally, I enjoyed the beer and loved the Hop nose, but these days my palate has been heavily skewed by IPA's and Barrel aging. I would recommend this for people that don't aren't IPA lovers, but I'll likely be drinking my regular Hop Wallop on my next visit to Downingtown.