Sartori Harvest IPA
Driftwood Brewery

Pretty happy that I managed to find a fresh can of this.

Pours clear amber-orange with a nice symmetrical white head. Leaves a ton of lacing.

Smells of pine, catty hop resin, moss, some citrus and melon notes too.

This beer is like a fresh pine bomb that's just hopped way out of control. Absolutely awesome. Super piney and earthy with a sweet grapefruit kind of note in the background.

Mouthfeel is really nice. The carbonation is done perfectly and the hop prevalence leaves that resin coating you want on a bold IPA.

Nothing about this beer is muted. This is by far the best west coast/traditional IPA I've ever had. This is done very well and is pretty close to as good as it gets for wet hopped bitter pine bomb kind of IPAs. I love it.

Appearance - Pours a copper with four fingers of frothy white head.

Smell - piney, earthy, leafy, citrus, and floral hops, citrus and grapefruit peel, pine resin, caramel, bready malts, and earthy yeast.

Taste - bold piney, earthy, leafy, citrus, and floral hops upfront. The citrus and grapefruit come through next. The pine resin, caramel, bready malts, and earthy yeast round out the brew.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes sticky with the hops, pine resin, and grapefruit lingering.

Overall - A true West Coast IPA that delivers on the piney front. This one nails the technique down to a tee. A pleasant tipple to enjoy!

 

650 ml bomber (a format that Driftwood seems to still really like - but they make such great beer so carry on!).
This is a beautiful clear copper pour with finger + of just slightly off white head.
Aroma is piney, dank, slightly spicy with grapefruit rind, caramel malt and a touch floral and earthy.
Earthy resinous hops hit the palate with grapefruit pith bitterness, pine, dank and weedy, a bit floral on a caramel malt backing.
Smooth medium full mouthfeel - perfect carbonation - a touch dry with lingering earthy, piney bitterness.
Wet hop done right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bottle shared by Sylvain.

I've heard great things...now I've tasted them.
Service: Bottle chilled. Poured to a tulip. Thanks Ben!
Great pour. Bright orange hue with substantial head. Mildly hazy. Solid head that had staying power. Looks great!
Aroma is in your face. Straight off the pour. Fresh citric hop and green goodness.
Taste : Very solid but singular and to the point. Grassy and citrus. Substantial malt invests. Lingering aftertaste of a nice blend of malts and hop bettering.
Mouth feel was substantial. I like it and is required in my mind for a solid IPA. Tongue was caressed by fine bubbles which added to the back of mouth elements of this brew.
Overall: I was thinking this beer had a hard task to live up to its reputation but I was very pleasantly surprised. They have something great going on here! I feel it may be partly the fact that they use copious amounts of hops on a great IPA malt backbone. It works and I approve.

 

Pours a deep golden with whitish frothy two finger head. Aroma is slightly tropical but heavier to pine and grass. Flavour starts with a hint of sweetness then moves to earthy pine and grass notes. Hop bite up front is assertive but not off putting. Finishes with an earthy chewy dryness.

 

This review is one of two fresh hop ale reviews - the other being Yellow Dog Brewery’s Alpha Dog 2106 release. I made these reviews as a challenge by an acquaintance who said that Alpha Dog was a way better beer than Driftwood’s Sartori Harvest. As I have not had the privilege to try either until now, I figured a good head to head taste off was in order (pun intended). See here (https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35919/193023/?ba=JonCorbett#review) for my review of Alpha Dog.

Appearance: Clear and golden amber with a generous one and half fingers of rocky white fluff and leaves in it’s moderate dissipation a decent amount of crocheted lace about the glass. Gentle carbonation bubbles float to the top in a fairly uniform manner. (4.5)

Aromatics: Fairly mellow - I found it actually quite lacking from what I was expecting. But it was fresh with sweet grasses and hop juice, some light florals with honey malt and subtle yellow grapefruit and pomelo citrus. (3.75)

Taste: Sweet pine nut start and the flavour briskly drops into a smooth earthy green pine resin. The sweet malts do a wonderful job of bringing along the hoppy bitter with very skillful balance that sees it finish of sweeter than the start. There is a pretty good earthy aftertaste that combines with the bitter mouthfeel at the end. (4.25)

Feel: Middleweight through and through with a moderate carbonation and a grainy wooden grapefruit peel bitter that lingers across most of the palate. (4)

Overall: So overall… In my opinion Satori edged out Alpha Dog in appearance, and flavour, but I give Aroma and Feel to Alpha Dog - Overall I think they are fairly equivalent. Different qualities for sure but both come in with a decent 4.25 overall. (And in the end with the rating system, Satori eeked out the win by a margin of just .03) Two great fresh hop brews for sure, so try to get them yourself and decide which is the better...

Pairing : Salt. I enjoyed the tamed bitter, but its the sweeter flavours that even though are behind the scenes are the ones that real make the whole show happen in this one. And those sweet flavours need a good salty counter balance. After enjoying half of my bomber sample I personally went with a Jalapeño and Cheddar popcorn blended with double butter popcorn - the extra butter helped out the bitter linger a bit on the palate while the spice and salty added an nice flavour enhancement. I think atmosphere-wise, Satori is better suited to open public forums, where as I found Alpha Dog to be a more intimate and relaxing brew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got on a CANBIF trade! Thx westcoastbeergeek! Served at 4deg C in a draught glass

A- Opens well and pours a 1" high white head that lasts for nearly 5mins before film out. Very dark almost an orange/gold colour. Unfiltered goodness

S- Oodles of hops. Has that sweet scent of sugar

T- Yup! Sweet as expected. Not so much so that it's sickly or anything but very sweet. Has a good hop base but the bitterness level is pretty low considering that this brew is a IIPA in training.

M- Dry and crisp. Bite on the tongue happens at the end

O- Very good brew. Will buy if I ever see it around but BC brews are not distributed very well here in Ontario. Too bad really as there some prime beer examples out there.

Food Pairing

This wonderful little brew went very well with........ Chili! Nice ground beef chili with red kidney beans, onions, tomato soup condensed and mushrooms. Drain off a bit of the grease after frying the beef so the chili is not too greasy. Don't forget 4 tablespoons of chili powder to 3lbs of meat. Try some diced celery to spice it up a bit once in a while.

Enjoy

 

Package: 650 ml bottle.

Appearance - Medium gold..

Smell - Bright floral hops.

Taste - Bitter, citrus, hints of honey, sugary maltiness, very dry finish.

Mouth-feel - Medium.

Overall - Very tasty well balanced IPA. The dryness at the end perfectly complements the hops used.

 

 

 

 

I don't love fresh hop beers in general, but I love this one. Very perfumy nose, which is usually a turnoff for me, but it works in this beer. Clean, not overly bitter flavor and just a nice beer through and through.

Nice hoppy IPA Great job guys!
Picked up a few bottles of the 2017 Brew. Another great batch, nice and hop filled.
I missed posting the 2016 run the 2017 is slightly better in my opinion.
The 2022 run is the best so far, nice a bitter, very clean and easy to drink.

 

 

grassy, wet, hoppy, slight citrus but alllll muted to result in amazing drinking.
upon first sip i was disappointed. then i kept drinking. and it opened up, but in a very subtle way.
you have to
take
your
time
with this one.