This beer looks great in the glass, showing a nice golden amber and a fairly vigorous, foamy white head.  It was clear enough that I could read through it when close. The aroma does not disappoint either, presenting a moderate fresh, citrusy, Cascade character up front with a faint background of malt.

On the other hand, the flavor leaves something to be desired... and that something is hops.  Where are they? I get mostly a moderate pale malt with perhaps a touch of breadiness, but the hop flavor is basically overpowered until the malt fades away on the backend. The moderate-low hop flavor and bitterness of this beer are just too low to be a good APA, and it doesn't work for me because of this lack of the balance I am used to in the style.  In the realm of bitterness, Otter Creek claims that the brew is 23 IBU (International Bittering Units: the numerical scale for measuring bitterness in beer), which is much less than normally expected for an APA and even less than most English Pale Ales.  Of the ten iconic commercial examples of APA given by the BJCP, I was able to quickly find the IBU values for eight of them.  When averaged, we get 43.25 which is a great deal more bitter than the 23 IBUs of the Otter Creek Pale Ale.  I should note that one of these iconic examples (Anderson Valley's Poleeko Gold Pale Ale) only has 28 IBU, but it has enough hop flavor and a perfect balance to make up for the lower bitterness.

All in all, I'd have to rate Otter Creek's Pale Ale as a rather mediocre interpretation of what happens to be one of my favorite, go-to styles.  After a nice pour and a good aroma, the hop-backward taste just disappoints.  I would drink it if someone gave it to me, but you won't see me purchasing it for myself when there are so many better APAs out there.