Pizza Port / Three Floyds - Shredd Session
Pizza Port Solana Beach

 

Initially a little disappointing - I expected great things from this beer, a collaboration between two great breweries. But then I saw that this was an old can that I had purchased online, dated about a year ago, and that’s just too long for an IPA. Pours a nice golden-yellow color with some fluffy white head and spotty lingering lacing. Smells of some more faint grapefruit, lemon, pineapple and mango zest fruity hops, as well as some weaker malt, bread and floral hops in the background. Taste follows the nose, and this beer had a decently bitter hoppy punch in the finish. Smooth thin mild mouthfeel, not particularly sticky or soft, decent carbonation. Fine enough and decently enjoyable, just not what I would use as a sessionable beer and certainly the age of this IPA didn’t help matters. Unfortunately it’s already been retired so I guess I’ll never know what a fresh one tastes like.

 

 

 

 

Tasted in a Spiegelau IPA glass from a 22 fl oz bottle on September 8, 2018. Notes of pine, citrus and tropical fruits. Lightly toasted bread finish. Crushable.

 

 

Pine up front, very noticeable. A yeasty bread flavor on the finish is the second thing I noticed. Some tropical fruit notes. Pretty good.

 

 

 

 

 

Pouring from a bomber bottle into a pint glass this beer is a see through medium golden color with small sediment floating throughout the glass. I can see through the beer but without great clarity. The smell is citrus with some very slight vanilla like sweetness but it's all somewhat muted. The taste on the other hand is full of flavor. From ripe citrus and resin/pine notes to a biscuity malt backend. It goes through the mouth being sticky but finishing dry with the biscuit notes. Overall, this is a flavorable session in a summer of heat that needs more session beers in it. Give me another.

 

Teaming up with their Southern Californian friends of Pizza Port, a surfer dude mentality joins with the death metal edge of the midwest for a beer that's suave but with a bit of grit.

Shredd Session sounds like something that might eat your face off, but the session IPA hosts all the hoppy glories that come in standard IPA strength but in a body and alcohol content that'll have you riding waves; kicking off with a burnish gold haze and topped with an arid cotton froth. Pine, citrus and a hint of tropical fruit raise a hoppy perfume with hints of caramel, honey and butterscotch which each seem to suggest a granola like maltiness upon the early palate.

The ale quickly jumps on the IPA track by shedding its sweetness and steering directly toward a hoppy middle palate. Pink grapefruit, under ripened orange and a hint of lemon brighten the taste while a light succulence of mango bring an exotic tropical twist. Alas, a final turn to pine, herb and grass, a piquant bitterness awaits with a strong spruce, lemongrass and citrus rind grip on the gullet.

Despite its moderate body and strength, the hops tighten its grip in finish in true west coast IPA palate impact, its spicy hops linger long on the after palate as dry grassiness, citrus and dry pine resins clearly persist in a crisp, refreshing and arid substrate with minimal flaw.