What Our Age Lacks Is Not Reflection, But IPA
Evil Twin Brewing

 

A: murky; straw colored; less than a 1 finger white head that receded to a wispy cap; nice lacing;

S: pineapple, orange, lemon, and tangerine;

T: pineapple and orange with a hint of lemon from start to finish; mild bitterness at the end;

M: medium to full bodied; moderate carbonation; moderately dry finish;

O: good, but not memorable;

On draft. Poured a very cloudy, hazy, golden orange color with a good-sized, off-white head of foam. It left sudsy sheets of lace on the glass. It smelled of grapefruit, orange, guava and caramel. Very muted flavors for an Imperial IPA. Tropical fruit and caramel with minimal bitterness.

 

such cool art on the evil twin cans lately, really attractive and when a few are together they really pop on the shelf. been awhile since i have had one of their long winded named hoppy ones so had to pick this up. its a very nice beer, albeit somewhat generic in terms of the hop profile, but the quality is there, i love the texture, and i really cant complain, except for the fact that the bottom inch or two of the can were pure sediment, thankfully i was pouring carefully and cut it off before i dumped it into my glass, but its like straight up gloopy at the bottom of this, yuck. before that level though its a softly hazy orange tone, somewhat viscous for the style, looking backlit in my fancy saison glass, and holding a high inch or more of puffy white head, pretty but i have to deduct a bit for all the sediment in the bottom. the nose here is pine forward and slightly juicy, grapefruity to me, with light green onion or olive or something with the hops, not unappealing, an under ripe melon note too perhaps, light spiciness as well, it grabs my attention even though its familiar, very northwestern. the flavor has more grain than expected, its not just body here but flavor too, wheat driven i would suspect, i like how full it is, how drying and grounding it is for these hops, and how it takes the edges off what could potentially be some harshness without it, very intentional and smart. the hops work so well with it, and there is a great oily linger to this even though the finish is dry and there is balance. bitterness is middle of the road for the style, maybe high for a hazy but works in a double, the alcohol is well hidden, the fermentation is complete, and this even has a sort of can conditioned liveliness about it. overall very good, only mark against it is the sediment in the can, maybe the price, but i am happy to be seeing a pretty steady stream of their beers making it into idaho!

 

This is a DDH DIPA with Citra, Idaho 7, and Simcoe, and it was canned on 4/22/21, making it about four weeks old. The last ET IPA I had a couple weeks back was quite good so I'm hoping this one follows suit.

The pour here is a super-hazy orange color with a decent but unexciting head that builds to a finger-and-a-half with good surface coverage and retention. As it slowly sinks to a half-finger of solid foam, it leaves behind cohesive, nice-looking foam that is about par for the course when it comes to this kind of brew. Legs are very quality, too, and overall the appearance checks all the required boxes for a well-constructed DIPA in 2021. Into it!

First sniff is giving off some dankness, peach, apricot, and melon with undercurrents of spruce and orange peel. It's honestly not as aromatic as you'd think given the hop lineup and DDH-ness of the whole thing, but I can definitely get some of these hops' known characteristics pretty easily. That said, it doesn't really feel like they come together in a super-meaningful way. Not always a bad thing, as sometimes even diametrically-opposed elements in beer can feel cool when juxtaposed, but this just seems a little underwhelming to my senses. Light gin-type botanicals come out amongst the herbal and coniferous leanings Simcoe produces here, and Idaho 7 definitely shows up with some of its stone fruit qualities here and there, but nothing is convincing me to feel great about this specifically.

Grainy as hell on the tongue with a bright pop of mango and orange/tangerine before settling into grassiness and rather muted yeastiness that doesn't really go much of anywhere. Perhaps this has fallen off, as I've definitely had more than a couple DDH hoppy beers over the past few months that have become nearly-flavorless/boring even sooner than I usually expect them to. Kind of a bummer, honestly; this might've been awesome as recently as last week at this time, but I may never know. Not much happens here, though it's definitely a well-made beer when it comes to the feel and overall composition, so I will give them that. Goes down smooth and has ample carbonation, so it's not just attempting to be a juice-bomb. Just feels like the flavors aren't as well-defined or as burly/complex/present as expected from such a flexible, star-studded combo of hops. Will definitely keep trying future ET IPAs, but I think I'll try to get them at less than a few weeks old if possible. Not really necessarily a fan of this type of freshness-chasing, as the onus shouldn't be (fully) on the consumer when it comes to hop-forward ale procurement, but it's also not a simple fix by any means. I'll shut up. Give it a shot and see what ya think!