The Boss
Syndicate Restaurant & Brewery

 

East Coast IPAd are one of my favorite styles. I enjoy their happy fruitiness. This brew is missing the characteristics of the style. Too bland, too subdued, very ordinary. Watery. Looks great though - soft hazy yellow, big soapy head that settles to s full cap,handsome lace.

 

 

 

Had great hopes. Major letdown. When people get into brewing because it's "cool" you know the product is going to suffer. And that it did. This beer is best for catching slugs.

Drank from the can they way some NEIPA brewers suggest. Canned on date is unreadable.
I’ve been drinking hop forward ales since the 90’s and without exception this is the most bitter, out of balance beer from a commercial brewer I’ve ever had! To be clear I don’t mind it, but for many I would expect ‘The Boss’ to get a few choice words after every sip. Not recommended unless you are truly into eating grapefruit skins, pine needles and unripe persimmons.

473 ml can served at cellar temperature into a pint glass. LCBO purchase for $3.25 CDN.

Appearance - Somewhat hazy golden colored beer with two fingers of frothy looking white head. Pretty good staying power and a nice curtain of white lacing left behind.

Smell - Earthy hops, some tropical mango and pineapple, but rather subdued. A faint butterscotch toffee aroma ties it all together. Pretty subdued all in all.

Taste - Earthy and weedy at first with a candied mango presence to it, then reverts to very bitter. The bitterness is a litytle too bitter for the sake of being bitter, but with a little work this could be really good.

Mouthfeel - Soft pillowy mouthfeel, a little sticky and soft carbonation. Dry astringent finish.

Overall - There's potential here as it has that soft NEIPA mouthfeel, just lacking on the fresh juiciness that the best of that style have. Still the Boss is a good and interesting beer.

473 mL can from the LCBO; dated Dec 14 2018 and served slightly chilled. I'm going to call this a session IPA, even though it isn't explicitly advertised as such.

Pours a pale, cloudy yellow colour, sporting one finger of lumpy, sparkling white head head that lasts for the better part of five minutes. A messy ring of lace is scattered about in the process, with a rocky collar of delicate foam lingering on for considerably longer; looks good. Musty, grassy hops come through on the nose, which is exceedingly muted... in fact, other than weak hints of gritty grain and stone fruit, I can barely smell anything else off of the glass at all.

A passable, inoffensive pale ale; it does taste better than it smells, at least, with notes of bitter citrus pith and floral, grassy hops responsible for a large fraction of its flavour. They're supported by a very light background of gritty, grainy pale malt sweetness that is partially (if not mostly) obscured in favour of the aforementioned hops - which dominate the back end of the sip, leading into a pithy, grassy finish and aftertaste with some mild astringency. Light in body, with lively carbonation that feels prickly on the palate, and a somewhat frothy, smooth mouthfeel, as well as fantastic drinkability.

Final Grade: 3.55, a B grade. The Boss is a well-made brew, but not a very interesting one. I just feel that Syndicate's effort doesn't compare favourably to some of the other Ontario-made session IPAs you can find on shelves these days. Still, I can't say there's anything inherently bad about this beer - there's no real flaws here, the hop profile is just kind of dull (and since it's a session IPA, there's nothing else to pick up the slack). I'll give this brew another shot if I come across a fresh flat in the future, but I doubt I'll be back for more before that.

If they mean east coast, as in the Maritimes, and not east coast bas in New England, then I might buy this as an east coast IPA.

Look is good, frothy head with good retention and lacing.

Smell is sort of meh, doesn't smell like much at all.

Taste is grassy hops and malts

Feel is good, medium weight with good carbonation. Finish is pithy and dry.

Well, I lived on the east coast of Canada for years...this would be a reasonable beer there, better than some, but trailing many.

Pours slightly hazy, gold coloured with a reasonable head. The smell is hoppy and bitter. The taste is on the lighter side of bitter, thin mouthfeel, but in a lower ABV beer, that is acceptable.
Sept 17 2020