Hop Kitchen - Juicy Mandarina
New Belgium Brewing Company

Excellent hazy IPA. Not true turbid style but close. Fruity hop smell and taste. Decent bitter, moderate feel.

 

 

 

 

16oz glass at Beer Revolution YEG's literal tap takeover for New Belgium - only their Brewsters house brews break it up a bit.

This beer appears a near opaque, medium pulpy grapefruit juice colour, with one skinny finger of soapy and wispy off-white head, which leaves a solid coating of painted lace around the glass as it quickly wafts off.

It smells of bready and doughy caramel malt, white grapefruit and mandarin orange citrus, a bit of flinty chalkiness, and some further leafy and piney green hoppiness. The taste is grainy and bready caramel/toffee malt, muddled exotic fleshy citrus fruit, more wet chalk, and some consistent herbal, vegetal, and grassy hops.

The carbonation is quite understated in its gentle and caressing frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and mostly smooth, just a bit of citrus zest acerbity kicking about. It finishes off-dry, and still citrusy up the yin and malty up the yang.

Overall, this seems very much like New Belgium's attempt to replicate the juiciest, most turbid Vermont-style IPAs, and they've generally succeeded. Maybe the focus on complex citrus isn't exactly true to that as yet codified style, but take this as a (nearer) West Coast treatment as such, and you (like yours truly) will have absolutely no problem killing the rest of this offering.

 

I tried the Hop Kitchen at the Tap House in Oswego, IL. It poured a cloudy yellow with white head that left a nice lace. The scent had hints of citrus and spice. The taste had orange peel and bitters. The Mouthfeel was medium in body with good carbonation. Overall it's interesting and worth a try.

 

interesting to see people scoring this one so highly, i really wasnt all that impressed, on tap at breck on blake. it looks nice, a rich sunny orange color, shiny and clear, with almost an inch of foamy white head with fine retention and patchy lacing. the aroma is a simplified version of what i know these hops to be, less orangey and bright, less citrus all together, more of a vegetal thing, still really fresh, but just not as distinct that the profile that has inspired the recent popularity of this varietal. the flavor agrees, like its almost too malty for the hops to come all the way out, not that its sweet or heavy or anything, but it seems like too much grain flavor in the way. more of a burnt orange than a fresh orange complexion. not a bad beer though, light enough still, flavorful, fresh, but they really could have ramped up the hops, especially on the dry hop to make this more accentuated. the hop kitchen series was supposed to be experimental right? i dont see much experimental about this one. these guys have been entirely too safe lately...

 

From a Howler. $7.99

Pours a cloudy orange with plenty of long lasting foam.

Smells hoppy with abundant notes of oranges. Smells like the peels were thrown in the pot.

Bitter, full orange taste, quite juicy and refreshing. Long lasting aftertaste goes well with the excellent mouthfeel.

Excellent beer.