Mama’s Bubbles
Carter's Brewing

a tasty brut ipa here with beet sugar and hallertau blanc. i like what the beer sugar adds, or rather maybe prevents the grain from adding. i have to imagine its all fermentable, and so we get the alcohol spike without any additional body or malt character, and this remains quite light on the grain and mouthfeel, even at this higher strength for the style, pretty clever. these guys always have made good beer in my experience, and its no surprise that their brut it way ahead of the style curve, the hops are bright and fresh and vinous, and there is definite green grape skin and orchard fruit character to this. so many of these are real phenolic and even chemical tasting to me, but this one is subtle on the yeast side and really is pretty clean as they go, nice and dry too, so the hops really pop during the back half of it. the carbonation isnt champagne high, but its nice and lively, and this ends up drinking way easier than it should at this strength. a nice and clever example of the style, nicely selected hop for this type of thing too. these guys have never let me down, definitely an underrated operation!