Amnesia's Dusty Trail Pale

Bouncing around Portland for Music Fest NW, we took a break from the cosmically awesome collection of bands that had descended on the city to sip some brews at Amnesia Brewing, an excellently rustic beer-hall style brewery and pub at the north end of the city. With temperatures tickling the three-digit mark, a cold beer sounded swell, but an overly hoppy one, well, sounded like a punishment to our dehydrated palates. We opted, at the recommendation of the perfectly Portlandia-looking bartender, for the Dusty Trail Pale Ale, a dry-hopped creation that, unlike many Northwest pales, wasn't too spicy. And this is great, considering the Northwest trend of hopping pales to the point that they're essentially IPAs. This beer is crispy and, when served as cold as the pints we tasted, works well as a fall beer... that is, if fall continues to be this damn hot.