Welcome to the Drink in the Sights Truman's Pale Ale Beer Review. I'm not actually sure where I picked this beer up, maybe it turned up in a recent Brew Republic box, or maybe I found it in B&M either way here's my review of Truman's Pale Ale. Truman's are an East London based brewery and other than a brief hiatus towards the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century they've been brewing away for close to 350 years. If I'm honest though I think this is the first Truman's beer I've had, maybe I'll find more next time I go to London if this one turns out to be any good. Quick edit I've checked and I did get it from Brew Republic not B&M.

Pale Ale comes in a very green 330ml can with the traditional Truman's eagle looking quite angry, but still majestic on the front. As a former member of YOC (the young ornithologists club, yes I'm just that cool) I have to say I like the can. The 4.1% alcohol content isn't exactly going to get the heart racing, but I guess it's not entirely inconsequential and is probably about right for a session beer. There's also a silver award from The Drinks Business on the back from 2019 so presumably someone quite likes this beer, so we'll take that as a good sign.

Truman's Pale Ale pours a nice cloudy pale yellow, be careful pouring as it's quite lively resulting in a nice big head. You can certainly tell that this is an unfiltered beer, and I do like unfiltered beers, they just seem to have a little bit more taste to them. Plus as a dark beer drinker I feel slightly more comfortable around a beer I can't see straight through. The aroma is a pretty zesty lemon, almost like fresh lemonade, it certainly smells like this should be a pretty nice, refreshing beer.

The taste very much matches the smell. There's lots of lemon in there, and possibly some lime too, which is always a pleasant combination. It's got a bit of zest to it, but not too much. Initially the beer feels quite refreshing, but there's a bit of a strange metallic and grapefruit finish which leaves a bit of a poor aftertaste in the mouth. It's really disappointing because initially I had marked this down as a solid 7 out of 10, but the finish really lets it down. I'm going to give Truman's Pale Ale 5 out of 10, it starts well but finishes as a bit of a disappointment. 

I really do seem to be motoring through these ALDI beers now, and so far they've been fairly impressive 6-7.5 out of 10 beers without actually creating anything truly special yet. Lets see if Freak Aleworks Phantom Pale Ale from the 130 year old Brains brewery in Cardiff can keep up the good run. If you don't think you've seen a Brain's beer before just think back to some olde ale pubs you've visited with cask beers with a massive SA on the them, they're Brain's beers, and you see them everywhere. 

Freak Aleworks Phantom Pale Ale comes in a funky light blue 330ml can featuring a scene that looks like it belongs in a Ghostbusters or Buffy the Vampire Slayer cartoon. It's just covered in what I guess are meant to be phantom freaks, don't worry they aren't too scary. The 4.8% alcohol content isn't too scary either, but for 99 pence it's a reasonable strength for the price. It's a pretty good fun little can. The beer pours with a limited head and straw coloured body, so it looks like pretty much every other craft pale ale out there.

The aroma is virtually all zesty citrus, which I'm not a big fan of so this doesn't bode well. I get the idea this is going to be one seriously hoppy drink, but I really hope it's not. The can describes 'citra mosaic topaz ella and galaxy hops' though so I guess all I can really do is hope that they are at least reasonably well balanced and the beer is fairly refreshing. Maybe I'm on my own with this one but I really do think there's just too many citrus based beers out there now.

The beers texture is as expected, light and hoppy, but the taste is rubbish if I'm honest. There's really nothing there except citrus on top of citrus with an extra dollop of citrus for good measure. It really is quite tangy and exactly what I feared it'd be. If you really like citrus beers you'll probably cope with this, but if you're like me and want something with a bit of balance this beer wont be for you. I'm going to give Freak Aleworks Phantom Pale Ale from Brains and exclusive to ALDI 2 out of 10. It's comfortably the worst beer in the ALDI selection. 

Ghost Dance Chinook Pale Ale is another offering from ALDI's ridiculously cheap beer selection, and this one's an exclusive brewed by Redwell Brewing in Norwich. I know about Redwell because I have a celiac friend and he tells me all their beers are gluten free, but that's not made clear on this one so please don't try it without further research if you have issues with gluten. I really don't want to be responsible for anyone's gut problems. So far I've been pretty impressed with the ALDI selection despite them all been either IPA's or pale ales so lets hope Ghost Dance lives up to the rest.

The beer comes in a nice 330ml sun gold can with the head of a quite unhappy looking Chinook Indian, maybe drinking more beer would cheer him up, but then alcohol has really caused enough trouble to Indian tribes over the decades. I like the picture though with an Indian camp scene in the Chinook's headwear. Maybe he's unhappy because he's remembering what life used to be like before the Europeans came and pretty much butchered his way of life, and very possibly his family. I guess when you think of it like that he's right to look unhappy, and having a beer is unlikely to really help.

Anyway I've gone a fair way off track now. Ghost Dance pours a clear sunbeam gold with a good but short lived head. It all looks like a nice enough pale ale to me. There's quite a strong orange, citrus aroma which is pleasant enough, but also common enough to not really stand out as anything special. There's nothing in the look or smell of this beer that will put you off drinking it, or overly excite you, but for a pound I have to say it looks pretty good value especially with the reasonably strong 5.3% alcohol content.

Ghost Dance has all the usual pale ale freshness and light texture you'd expect. While the taste very much matches the aroma with a decent orange, citrus flavour which is pretty well balanced. You could certainly do a lot worse for the price. I quite like it. I'm going to give Ghost Dance Chinook Pale Ale from Redwell Brewing and exclusive to ALDI 7 out of 10. It's probably best described as a good reliable all round decent pale ale. It doesn't do anything particularly new, but it's likeable all the same.