Land Speed Record
Notch Brewing

 

32 oz crowler (filled yesterday) poured into a Notch half liter Willi Beecher

Pours a lightly hazy pale yellow in color a finger and a half of soapy white head that quickly dissipated. Aroma is a little muted but has some sweet mandarin orange and other citrusy notes and maybe a hint of sweet malt. Flavors have a little more punch than the aroma. The citrus is there with mandarin orange and some grapefruit but it’s smooth. There is a little melony note as well as soft malt and a hint of bitterness in the finish. Medium-light body and moderate carbonation. Overall a good, drinkable low ABV pale ale but like many beers of this style the flavors just don’t quite do it for me.

 

 

Very good and hazy. Nice hoppy pale ale. Fruity nice clean hoppy smell

On tap at the Salem establishment. Had a few of their beers and this was the best. It was super turbid. Like a New England Style Session IPA. Fruity and juiced. Flavor didn’t linger and low bitterness. Pretty yummy!

Bright pale yellow in color. Turbid in appearance. Stone fruit, mango, pineapple and a hint of pine. Cracker and wheat malt profile. Light, bright with a restrained citrus bitter finish. Real nice session beer.

I've always shied away from session beers. Most of what I've had is thin, watery and flavorless. This is the beer that changed that view. At 4.5% this is almost as satisfying as a 7% Treehouse or Trillium beer. I have to say "almost" because I think it's (pretty much) impossible to get the body and flavor from a 7% beer into a 4.5% beer. Notch gets so close. This is a huge achievement. This beer looks amazing - bright glowing yellow. It is turbid which is in line with the current trend of NE PAs/IPAs. The smell is loaded with fresh citrusy fruits - lemon and grapefruit dominate. Hops listed at the time were: Citra, Hull Melon and Grungeist. The taste is bursting with those fresh acidic fruits which makes it refreshing and with almost no acidic bite. That's another huge accomplishment - it gives you that zesty citric bite but it's still smooth. How is that possible? I believe the malt bill is 50% wheat and perhaps mashing temps are on the higher end. The mouthfeel/body is medium which makes you forget you're drinking a 4.5% beer. This, along with Dog and Pony Show have made me a Notch fan. I really hope they starting canning these types of beers. I've brought home a bunch of these in their crowlers but would love to see these in 16oz cans at the stores as well.