Back Forty Naked Pig Pale Ale — Straightforward, Honest, and Really Good

The Review

Back Forty’s Birmingham location at Sloss Docks opened in July 2018 with a 1.5-acre beer garden, a full pub kitchen, and a dramatic view of the Sloss Furnaces — one of those rare brewery settings where the industrial backdrop actually makes the beer taste better by association.

Naked Pig is the easy-entry point to the Back Forty lineup: a pale ale that does everything a pale ale should do without making a fuss about it. It pours clear amber-gold with a white head. The nose is moderate — biscuit malt, light citrus hops, a touch of floral. The palate is balanced and medium-bodied, with a hop presence that’s present but never aggressive, and a clean, slightly dry finish.

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Nothing about Naked Pig tries to impress you. It just succeeds at being a well-made, reliably enjoyable pale ale, which is harder than it sounds and rarer than it should be. At the Birmingham taproom on a Saturday afternoon with a Back Forty Burger from the kitchen, it’s exactly the right beer in exactly the right place.

The name, incidentally, is a reference to the classic Southern saying that you use every part of the pig — Back Forty’s approach to brewing is similarly thorough. Nothing wasted. Everything purposeful.

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