Cyclope Thêta IPA
Brasserie Dunham

 

Deep murky straw/yellow color with no visible activity. Thick foamy and frothy white 4-5 finger head in a willibecher, lasting around 20 minutes, with good legs. Flavors of pineapples, mangos, grapefruits, lemon, sweet grains, wild yeast and herbal hops. Smooth silky, almost milky, medium body with a moderate crisp. Medium to strong strength finish, zesty and tropical, floral and slightly leafy, a bit wheathy and ending with sharp Saison style yeast having notes of cheese. Nicely fresh and quite tender, although I find it lacks a bit of sharpness. Fine IPA cross Saison interpretation, it's impressive and complex, would drink this every day if I could. Great balance with pleasant intensity. Overall excellent quality craft.

Bottle: Poured a yellow color ale with a nice large pure white foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of fresh citrusy notes with some light residual sugar notes also noticeable. Taste is a great mix of fresh citrusy notes with some light pineapple notes with some floral undertones and some residual sugar notes also noticeable. Body is about average with good carbonation. Solid IPA with nice refreshing factor and plenty of citrusy notes.

Bottle from Metro Montreal for around $3

 

 

1L howler from Keg n' Cork - since the rep for this brewery around here is too bloody inept to realize that there are multiple versions of the 'Cyclope' IPA, Imma just gonna go with the first one I came across.

This beer pours a cloudy, pale golden yellow colour, with three fingers of puffy, rocky, and well bubbly chalky white head, which leaves some nice sudsy hanging curtain lace around the glass as it lazily sinks away. Mmmmmm, turbidity!

It smells of gritty and grainy pale malt, a certain East Coast flintiness, muddled domestic citrus, and some plain earthy, leafy, and grassy green hop bitters. The taste is bready and crackery pale malt, more of that wet pavement in the rain thing, still muted orange and white grapefruit pith, a hint of brassy yeastiness, and more edgy leafy, weedy, and wet grassy hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly tame in its barely supportive frothiness, the body a solid medium weight, and generally smooth, but for a bit of the ol' citrus and verdant hop rigamarole. It finishes trending quite dry, the biscuity malt, chalk outlines, and mixed hops seeing to the fact.

Overall, this is a more or less pungent ode to the vaunted IPAs coming out of Vermont, etc. these days, in its dry, hoppy, and stoney manner. I'm digging on this, and will spend the rest of this serving vessel figuring out which actual variation this one is, with no thanks to 'Untapped Craft Imports'. Lo and behold, it turns out that it's apparently this one.

Service: Bottle
No date (3-4 weeks I am fairly sure)


A:
Pours a super cloudy Trillium-gold with a massive marshmallow puff head that takes a couple pours to fit in the glass. Rockily settles, but not much, 'Belgian' lace. (4.25)

S:
Juicy, dank fruit notes. Lemon, apricot, tangerine, marijuana, sugar cookies, moss, bruised herbs. (4.25)

T:
Lightly toasted cracker eaten off the forest floor. Earthy hops with some light stonefruit/citrus highlights, fairly pungent, earthy/dirty bitterness. (4)

M:
Soft, fluffy, medium carbonation, lingering hoppy finish. (4)

O:
This is the most well-made of these experimental hop duo beers that I have had from Dunham.
She's a looker and tastes good, but where it really shines is in the smell department. Really fruity and pungent weediness with a dirty flat bitterness underneath. Drinkable, hoppy, tasty.
I wish I had grabbed another one. (4.25)