Altitude 435 is a new Australian styled pale ale, made from Australian malt, US yeast and noble hops from around the world. We use “fresh wort hopping” before the boil, and a long steeping period after the boil. This ensures a perfect balance between the light malt characters and the hops bitterness, flavours and aromas. The name of this beer is given due to the altitude of Ballarat, the location of our brewery. A little pale history… The term Pale Ale was first used around 1703 in England. It was used to differentiate those ales that were light in colour, and flavour, but not as bitter as others. Bitter, or just beer, being terms that were then used to differentiate those ales that used the new ingredient, hops. There was no such thing as Lager or Pilsners back then… Before 1642, when coke (from coal) was first used in the malting process, ales tended to be amber to dark in colour, and smoky as well. This was because inconsistent malting, with occasional scorching, caused by using wood as the fuel, meant that malts were at the least smoky to some degree, and overall, made darker beers. In a lot of brewing regions, the local water profile meant that the darker malts where needed to help lower the pH of the brewing water. However, at Burton-on-Trent, England, the water profile meant that they did not require darker malts to help regulate mash pH, but until true pale malts appeared, unscorched and not smoky, Burton-on Trent ales were not that successful. As soon as Pale Ales were perfected, around the turn of the 18th century, they quickly replaced dark, smoky ales as the most popular beer. And its not too hard to see why….