Four Quarters Brewing, Five Horizons Pale Ale

Four Quarters Brewing is a small craft brewer in Winooski, Vermont. They don’t distribute widely, so when I saw this at a store, I snapped it up.
I’m glad I did.

From the label:

Pale Ale brewed with five grains and five hops
barley, oats, wheat, maize, and rice
azacca, eukanot, galaxy, mosaic, and nugget

Sounds awesome!

The label is black with an abstract drawing in white. From a marketing perspective, this seems like a bad design, because the brewery name and logo are in dark gray and hard to read. But it’s what’s inside that counts. Isn’t that what we learned from all those Disney movies?

It pours a hazy yellow with big gassy bubbles making a good head.

The head dissipates rather quickly, leaving almost no lacing.

The nose reveals citrus with a subtle earthiness, grass maybe.

The taste follows the nose, but the citrus notes are made more complex with some underlying spice. Complex, this one.

And it’s bitter. There’s so much hoppiness in here, it begins to settle in the bottom of the glass almost immediately after pouring.

The bitterness seems subtle at first, but it builds to a palate wecker at the end. This will be a hard beer to follow.

I guess I’ll just have to have another.

Is this a Pale Ale?

The brewer says it is, so who am I to argue?

I think it might be too cloudy, too yellow, and way too bitter for a plain pale ale. But who cares about labels? I love this beer.

The most disappointing thing for me about the beer might be the name. I don't know the reference. Is it really just a Pearl Jam lyric? Please help me here.