The Irreverent
Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom

A: Pours my absolute favorite color for a beer, walking the line between amber and mahogany, brilliantly clear with a persistent fluffy white head that laces well.

A: Fig is the dominant scent followed by champagne and raisin. A bit of an earthy nose finishes the story.

T: A bit muddled honestly. The raisin and fig are there, but nothing stands out. Very earthy.

F: This is where the beer fails me. Extremely thin and dry and verrrry bitter! As a fan of the West Coast IPA, I am no stranger to extreme bitterness, but there is no place for this in a quad in my opinion.

O: The name, the color, and the aroma is all this beer has going for it. Disappointed due to my love for DMB, but still glad i tried it. Cheers!

8oz glass at Beer Revolution YEG Oliver Square, at the remains of their Double Mountain tap takeover. Listed at 7% ABV here.

This beer appears a slightly hazy, medium orange-brick amber colour, with the thinnest of wispy off-white head, which leaves some eroding sea cliff lace around the glass as things very slowly sink away.

It smells of wet Baba cake, boozy Sultana raisins, grainy caramel malt, spiced toffee candies, a twinge of musty yeastiness, and very tame earthy and perfumed floral green hop bitters. The taste is nougaty candy, bready caramel malt, treacle, sauced up dark orchard fruit, a musty nuttiness, some tame under the basement stairs essence of time moving on, and more understated leafy and floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly inert in its placid frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and mostly smooth, with just a touch of musty and boozy 'character' stepping on a few toes here. It finishes off-dry, but on a sort of a drying bender.

Overall, I appreciate that this is not some cloying sugar bomb, nor an ill-advised hopped up Yankee re-imagining of this Belgian style. Balanced, fruity, and actually pretty easy to put back - I'm glad that I got a chance to try it, before it was suddenly just gone.