The Great Experiment Volume 7: Integrity
Barrier Brewing Company

A thanks to the captain of the canquest, woodychandler, for this beer. Poured from a 16 oz. can. Has a hazy golden color with a 1 inch head. Smell is of tropical fruits, citrus. Taste is juicy, tropical fruits, a touch of alcohl, mild bitterness. Feels medium/full bodied in the mouth and overall is an enjoyable beer.

 

2020-03-31
16oz can served in a big snifter. Dated 01-24-20.

Pours a very hazy yellow with a big head that collapses slowly. Smell is tropical, juicy, and bright.

Taste is more mango than anything else. Not super juicy or sweet, solid bitterness.

Mouthfeel is medium and effervescent. Overall, nice beer.

Well, all right! Things are FINALLY back on track WRT my deep-dive into Barrier Brewing Co.! This was a VERY recent score at/from Hunger-n-Thirst last weekend before the quarantine set in. I had initially planned to really get at their many CANlaborations in my backlog for The CANQuest (tm), only to get bogged down at the outset due to many NOT having an approved pic in place. 8=( One The CANQuest's (tm) main tenets is to NOT Crack! open a CAN without an approved pic in place. Hey, I am capable & happy to do it, but I felt like I was blindsided by the sheer number (& thanks to the Admin team for all of the speedy approvals). Onward!

From the CAN: "India Pale Ale"; "Brewed with our friends Vitamin Sea[,] Fuerst Wiacek Berlin[,] Northern Monk Brew Co"; "Paste Six of Ten Here"; "Seven of Ten"; "Illustrated by Daniel F. Birch".

Finally, I am in the home stretch, CANtinuing with this one & ending at Vol. 8. I Crack!ed open the vent & beCAN a slow, gentle C-Line Glug to celebrate, only to be met with more haze! 8={} Hey, it's their party & they CAN do whatever they like, but me no like since it CAN set off my GIRD. Ya heard? Oh well. At least I got two-plus fingers of dense, foamy, rocky eggshell-white head with above average retention for my efforts. The Mosaic & the Huell Melon were the stars of the show on the nose, bringing loads of tropical fruit & honeydew/CANtaloupe to the party! 8=O Mouthfeel was medium, but really slick & oily on the tongue. It just seemed determined to slide down my throat before I got a ChANce to really taste it. On this point, I have been reading some reviews where people were saying that theirs were initially too cold. I have my at room temperature, albeit a rather cool one, but it has been working out really well thus far. PSA from Chez Woody. I was heartened that I was not being beaten over the head by yet CANother tropical NEIPA. Instead, the Huell Melon was working really well in CANjunction with the Cascade to have a cool, minty melon flavor underlain by a tropical fruit sweetness. 8=O Finish was semi-dry, almost vinous as in a semi-dry white wine. 8=O This is at least the seCANd time that I have noted something like this in one of their beers! I am utterly gobsmacked. YMMV.

I gotta hand it to Barrier - I initially jagged them, CANmenting that they seemed incapable of doing anything on their own since so much of their output is collabs. I now retract that snarkiness & humbly beg their forgiveness. I have had many collabs that did not seem like CANything out of the ordinary or were simply too many cooks spoiling the broth. These guys really seem to know how to play well with others!