Sky Island IPA
Thunder Canyon Brewery

Pours a cloudy golden color, if you look for it, you can see the lightest current of amber pushing into the gold. Slight 1/3" white head. Not the biggest hop nose. There aren't a lot of details out there, but it appears this is not hazy because of flaked wheat, oats or massive dry hopping, just might be unfiltered?

Mouth feel reveals a substantial 70ibu level bitterness, the usual suspects of grapefruit rind and pine here. The body does appear to be partially comprised of some white wheat. I could see there being two bittering hops here, Simcoe and maybe something with a C. Maybe two C hops. Just seemed for the most part one of those one trick ponies that drop a hearty amount of bittering hops all over you. There weren't off flavors. There was just a rind grind the entire beer.

Could even be that the use of wheat wasn't sturdy enough to stand up to all those bittering hops, might be better with all barley.

 

 

 

 

Color is clear yellow with white foam. It actually has a pleasant sudsy mouthfeel. Hops start out fruity with an aroma of pine. But then the bitterness takes hold in an unpleasant medicinal way. It just tastes like a total overdose of hops. Enticing for a few fragrant sips but undrinkable. From the 16 oz can purchased at Whole Foods on Speedway.

 

 

Poured from a can with no bottle date. This is clearly a old can, given all the hop sediment. Bummer, but good lacing though.

Aroma is of soft peach, malt, and grapefruit.

Taste is primarily bitter. A little tropical fruit, but primarily an un-pleasant lingering bitterness. Solid malt backbone.

Overall, this is another prime example of why all beer needs a bottle-on date. I ended up cooking with this beer and dumping the rest. Again, bummer, but I reviewed the beer as it was sold to me, which should be the expectation. A good braising liquid for Mexican beef. It gets a generous 70/100.

LOOKS: A very hazy, burnt orange with almost no head. Mild lacing.
AROMA: Grapefruit, biscuits, and lemon.
TASTE: Wow, this will wake u up! Very sharp bitter citrus rind half way through the sip and to the finish. Starts just slightly sweet, with lots of grapefruit and lemon.
FEEL: Well carbonated, medium body, and bone dry.
OVERALL: There is an astringent-like quality here but it is not the cat pee thing I'm used to. Much more sharp but not in a bad way, like with something that is hopped using Simcoe, in a certain way. Definitely one of the most attention getting IPA's that I've had, but, in a good and different way.

 

Pours a hazy copper color with rich head and sticky lacing. Nose is full hops, citrus, floral, pine, and wheat. The taste follows the nose, very flavorful IPA, loads of hops, cool citrus with a sweetness of floral and chewiness of wheat. Exceptional IPA, very impressed with this one.