First off, Highland Brewing does a great job on their website of giving you information about their beers. They list ingredients, include the vitals, and give some nice background. This one is listed at 4.5% ABV and has an IBU of 32. They dry hop this one which is probably the reason for the great aroma from this one. Little Hump has a strong bouquet of hops aromas that becomes noticeable as soon as the bottle is opened. The aromas are typical of hops and the predominate scent on the nose. If you enjoy the smell of hops in your beer you may not get to actually drinking this one for a bit as the smell is just that good. There beer is playfully carbonated and produces a thin buy lacy head. The head does persist for quite a while which is nice to see. Serving temperature of this beer is refrigerator temperature. This helps make this an excellent spring beer. The beer is a very balanced, smooth beer. Nothing is particularly overpowering and it is an all around nice mellow drinking experience. You can see my first impressions on the
YouTube video. As it warms the hops bitterness will overpower the citrus flavors; while this isn't a bad thing if you enjoy hops, this beer really is better cold. I like the fact that this beer has a relatively low alcohol content as it makes for a nice light drink and you could easily enjoy several of these out on the porch with friends. The beer isn't so overpowering that it should nicely complement your favorite springtime cookout foods. The nice thing about this beer is that it reminds me of several summer "beers" that have strong citrus character. The excellent thing about this beer is that it hints at those beers to come while actually being a beer. This should be a very approachable drink for anyone. The 32 IBU seems high as you drink it. I only noticed a strong hops bitterness as the beer warmed. With spring festivals now in full swing this would be an excellent six pack to pick up, spread a blanket, enjoy some friends and music, and have some great beer. You can find more information on this one at the
Highland Brewing website.
Highland Brewing Company, based in Asheville, is a relatively large brewery that has a large line-up of year round, seasonal, and one off beers. Their Gaelic Ale is one of their year round staples. In fact it was the first beer they produced, it was originally called Celtic Ale but another brewery had trademarked that name. Enough with the history lesson and on to the beer. Gaelic Ale is an American Amber with a 5.6% ABV. It pours a dark amber color just as you would expect from an amber ale and forms a light head. There is a strong citrus hops aroma on the nose. There are some floral notes as well but the word I keep coming back to to describe the aroma is citrus. A nice hops flavor initially. Strong pine notes which is surprising based on the aroma of this one. The citrus is muted comparatively but still present. The citrus helps balance things out and makes this easy to drink. A slight hint of the toasted malt flavor presents itself as you continue drinking this beer. This one has a lot of carbonation as you drink it. Much more than would be expected based on the volume of head produced. In fact the carbonation gives it a sweet, acidic flavor there is so much. This is a nice safe beer. There isn't too much hops, there aren't weird flavors fighting over each other, and it is very easy to drink. You can find more information about this one on their website here and general information about their beers here. 
