Ok, took one of each home. Chilled them for several hours, just opened up the AG. Lightly carbonated, nice color, clear. Unlike the other opinion, I taste no skunkiness, no off flavors that I can determine. Still a little green however, should be nice in 2 weeks of cold storage.
Overall, from this initial tasting, I'd say its more along the lines of BJCP style 8a Ordinary Bitter (English Pale Ale), mind you that we replicated the kit ingredients that claimed it was a "Pale Ale", it doesn't have much of any hop aroma, although it has a nice bitterness to it. It seems to match the BJCP guidelines for this beer pretty spot on.
Generally, I'm happy with what I taste so far from the AG.
Tried the kit brew about 1/2 hour later. Lightly carbonated (about the same as the AG), nice color, clear. No skunkiness or off flavors detected. Still a little green as well.
Overall, same flavor, and about the same bitterness in both beers. Should be interesting to try them side by side, which I did not do.
Both of them will be available for consumption at the club meeting on the 9th. I expect to argue with aleguy and alms66 then over skunkiness.
