Imperial O'Dark:30
Oakshire Brewing

16oz can

Pours nearly 3 fingers of light brown head into my Willi glass, very pillowy. The head steadily dropped and eventually dissipated, but at a very slow rate, all in all the retention was pretty nice. Initial lacing looks pretty good. Body looks closer to an extremely dark brown. Looks pretty good so far.

Nose smells of herbal hops and a very pronounced burnt toast, also smells a little musty, maybe even cardboard, hopefully my nose is deceiving me. Some tropical notes hidden way in the back as well. Really hard to say for sure what I’m smelling, but I don’t care for the ensemble that much.

Yeah I don’t think this is oxidized, it’s not papery, it’s just a really odd blend of flavors. They are trying to mix herbal hops, with tropical hops, but roasted burn malt. At first this doesn’t work, but the palate seems to adjust. Everything really hits you all at once, which is a little confusing, but I guess it’s fun. Overall an odd flavor, not sure how I feel about it, good?

Carbonation is about medium, maybe a hair below. Body is about medium as well, drinks pretty smooth, but has a little weight to it when you take a second to look at it. Some noticeable bitterness that has a little burn in the finish; balanced well by a soft but welcome sweetness. Solid mouthfeel, burn gets a little much at times but overall this is well balanced.

With the exception of the burn, which sets you back a few seconds, the drinkability is quite nice. Not too heavy in any one area, and it’s pretty tasty.

Appearance turned out pretty nice. Lacing was fast out of the gates and died off a little, but pretty nice overall.

I still don’t think the nose works. Luckily, as is the case with many tropical IPA’s, is also true with this tropical hybrid - the nose doesn’t carry over to the flavor very well. Instead, the flavor is pretty in check, reasonable, and flavorful; albeit still a little unorthodox. Not bad, I enjoyed it enough.