Cabot 1919
Rock Art Brewery

 

This was very very good.

Purchased at the brewery on July 23 2019
Bottom of can: 6/25/19
Opened and reviewed on 7/30/19

Pours out looking pretty thick...
Straw gold, but hazy/muddy. Opaque for sure. Dense white foam is solid on top.

Hops are sweet fruity and citrusy smelling. Grains are like sour wheat and creamy malt. Oranges, banana and cream (lactose?) ale style malt aroma's are interesting and worth a sniff.

Well dang! First sip. Wow.
A straight line to definitive fruits from the hops. Lush hop complexity. The citrus is deep with grapefruit tartness, and sour pine tree sap. Raw tasting grains and golden wheat balances out the every changing hop taste. Lemon hop zest, white pepper flakes and then a thick...crushed up hop pellet style finish.
The mouthfeel is on the smooth and full side of the New England IPA spectrum. Damn smooth! With an ever present bitter and earthy bite right at the end.

Complexity is high in both flavor and feel. Sip it. For it changes faces multiple times throughout the session.

 

 

Poured into a snifter, the appearance was a pure opaque burnt orange color with a sustaining finger's worth of white foamy head. This slid off at a gentle pace. One messy ring of sliding lace tried to cling near the top but yes, I said "sliding" and so it stealthily slid downwards.
The aroma was exceptional! Coats of orange juicy pulpiness flows into bittersweet pine needles and crushed white pepper, huge amounts of grassy hops move through appropriately.
The flavor charges through a fine blend of grassy hops to orange juicy pulp. Extra citrusy sweetness rides in for added goodness. Quick grassy to white peppery aftertaste with some piney bitterness.
The mouthfeel was about medium bodied with a fair sipping quality about it. Nice low carbonation as expected for the New England style. Some dryness invading but not bothersome, just noticeable. Finish was dry, grassy and peppery.
Overall, a very nicely done New England styled IPA well worthy of coming back to.

Canned 6/25/19. Pours a thick, orange juicy haze with a frothy head. Mango, grapefruit and orange peel flavors in the nose and upfront on the tongue. "Juicy" for sure yet balanced enough to keep me interested. You can never be too "juicy" and I often wonder if the "NE IPA" will outlast the prior black IPA and other fads in craft beer. What I do know is that this is a worthy ode to my favorite purveyor of fine sharp block cheddar. Kudos to both.

 

This is definitely a weird and cool idea for a beer. I love Cabot cheese and have been to their visitor center on Waterbury-Stowe Road in VT multiple times, so it makes sense that Stowe's own Rock Art would eventually collaborate with them. When I first saw this as an available item at one of my favorite local beer shops, I definitely raised and eyebrow and said to myself "well, as long as it isn't brewed with cheese, it could be good?"

Anyway, this is a New England-style IPA clocking in at 7.5% ABV and 60 IBUs. The text on the can says that it has "luscious citrus and berry hop aromas, and bold flavor to spare." It pours a dingy, medium-orange color with some sludgy yeast presence in the body and a nice, thick, dense head of bone-white foam. The collar formed by said foam is solid and quite retentive... even after five to ten minutes in my glass, this beer still has a half-finger of suds that seem to be going absolutely nowhere. The lace is phenomenal, too... a perfect tiered layer appears for each small sip I take. I have some high hopes going into this beer; despite its dirty pour, this really has the makings of something solid!

The nose is layered with sticky tropical fruit and citrusy goodness, reminding me of a Citra/Mosaic hop bill immediately. There's a little bit of Simcoe or Amarillo-like complexity as well, providing a bit of spice and grassiness with some resin and pine as well. The label claiming there are "berry" characteristics makes me think they likely included Mosaic, but I've also heard that note can come from Enigma these days as well, so who knows? I just know this smells pretty good!

On the tongue, this pops with immense red raspberry right upfront before notes of pomelo, grapefruit peel, and juicy papaya toward the finish of each sip. Wow, this just really coats the tongue with all sorts of bright hop flavor. I didn't expect this one to be so lush and complex, but I really enjoy the way it goes from slightly sweet, biscuit-y malt to deep citrus and ripe berries all across the palate, finishing nicely pine-y and succinct. This is surprisingly great, and I wish I had a few more cans... great stuff.

Pint, canned 6/25/19. This is extremely hazy beige with a decent two finger head. Maybe the haziest IPA I've seen. Aroma is mostly piney hops. Can says 60 IBU, and that might be a little conservative based on the taste. Taste is orange and piney, a little more bitter than I prefer. Feel is good, carbonation makes it bite a little with the bitterness. Overall, this is a good NEIPA, just more piney and bitter than I prefer.