Cyclope Iota
Brasserie Dunham

 

 

 

12oz glass at Beer Revolution YEG Oliver Square. Another in the Greek letter IPA series from this brewing concern.

This beer appears a rather hazy, medium golden straw colour, with one finger of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly off-white head, which leaves some decent hanging storm cloud lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of orange and white grapefruit juice, some flinty chalkiness, gritty and grainy pale malt, and some mild leafy, piney, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is muddled tropical fruit, more domestic citrus rind, grainy and crackery pale malt, a damp stoniness, and some zesty earthy, leafy, and resinous piney verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate-supportive frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and generally smooth, with just a touch of hoppy astringency making a minor fuss here. It finishes trending dry, the malt bottoming out, while the varied hops flit about in a lingering fit.

Overall, this comes across as a pleasantly apish rendition of the NEIPA style, with a well-rounded citrus and pine forest floor hop quotient. Easy to drink, and quite refreshing - I'm enjoying sipping away at the rest of this on another sublime summer Sunday afternoon.

 

 

Bottle: Poured a bright yellow color ale with a nice pure white foamy had with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of fruity hops notes with some tangerine and light apricot notes and some floral citrusy undertones are also noticeable. Taste is also a mix of apricot and fruit notes with some citrusy hops notes and very little bitterness with light subtle spicy notes also noticeable. Body is about average with good carbonation. Solid IPA with the Denali hops really bring out different flavours.

 

 

 

Serving: Bottle
No date

A:
Pours  a bright glowing white gold
with three fingers of bone white head that lingers at about a quarter inch. Clumpy lacing; good retention. (4.25)

S:
Tropical herb smoothie. Mango, lime, guava, minty-ish herbal spice. (4.25)

T:
Dry bitterness and hard water with some fruity aromas coming out as it warms a little. (3.75)

M:
Lightish body with active carbonation and a dry mineral water finish. (3.75)

O:
A tasty IPA with a couple novel hop varieties.
This is good looking, Great smelling and okay drinking. The nose is definitely the highlight for me. My first impression was how tropical and juicy it smelled but as I drank some woodsy herbal notes came out and by the end I was having trouble separating them. Really interesting smell, nice. The beer in the whole is okay. I am guessing these are better hops for aromatics as the flavor is a little flat. A good IPA and a solid one-off, but this would need a little something extra in the flavor-department to really be an awesome beer.
Still and all, one of the better Cyclopes, in my opinion. (4)