Tallulah is an extra pale ale made by the San Francisco Speakeasy brewery. Their label stood out to me when browsing the Safeway near my temporary home. Although I didn’t know it at the time, there are several beers in this series that all have 1920s themed names and labels. It is now my goal to try all of them before I leave.

I am always a fan of pale ales. Minnesota loves its hoppy IPAs and American pale ales and this has conditioned me towards hoppy things. The only common EPA I drank in Minnesota was Summit’s EPA and it was very good. Compared to the local hop vibe, though Summit was not extreme. That same feeling occurred when I compared Tallulah to Summit’s EPA: it is much lighter and smoother than what I’m used to.

Now this should not be considered a bad thing, merely my tastes and expectations have been skewed
towards the hop. I will be curious to see what happens when I return to Minnesota if many Californian beers are less hoppy. Tallulah had a smooth and complex taste that was easy to drink but could occupy your brain trying to think about it. Sometimes I want to describe it as earthy or nutty, but I know compared to a brown or Scotch that wouldn’t be true. But probably compared to other pale ales it had some more undertones than just the hops you’d expect.