Bridge Of Bones
Reaver Beach Brewing Company

 

 

 

Mosaic and Citra hops deliver a juicy New England style IPA. Golden in the glass, not complex, but a nice attempt at a northeastern recipe from a southeast Virginia craft brewery.

L) Pours a lovely, somewhat opaque amber color with a creamy white head. Great lacing and extraordinary retention.

S) The nose is super juicy, loaded with citrus rind and tangerine flesh. Every aspect of a lovely ripe grapefruit can be sniffed from this sucker.

T) The taste has everything in the nose, as well as a very pleasant malt backbone to balance it out. It has a light, honey-like sweetness, and an almost somewhat resiny bitterness.

F) Honestly, I feel like the mouth-feel is where this beer shines. It is exceptionally creamy for the style without any gimmicks or being cloyingly thick. A pleasure to swirl and sip.

O) I'll give this one a recommendation to anyone looking for good, fresh, local IPAs in western VA. Super juicy and creamy, I think very highly of the brews coming out of Reaver Beach.

 

 

From the bottom of the can: "#MACKGOLD 05/29/18"

Appearance: The body is opaque with a beige and dull orange-brown appearance. It has a very nice fluffy white head that is large and has perfect retention and lacing.

Aroma: It has a massive aroma of mango, tangerine, and peach. The aroma is massive and it just pours from the glass when this is poured. It just shoves aroma in the nostrils and the fruity aromas are so strong and pronounced that they are very easy to define. It's perfect and there's literally no way to improve on this aroma.

Taste: It has a wonderful soft tangerine and peach flavor to the beer with a bit of a cotton candy flavor at the end.

Mouthfeel: It is smooth with no real bitterness. There isn't much presence on the palate with the exception of this thickness that the beer has. It has a very obvious New England IPA character to it. There is a little bit of lingering bitterness on the finish but mostly it is just smooth and unobtrusive. It does feel a bit too fluffy at times with the complete lack of bitterness or bite to balance the sweetness of the beer.

Overall: It's a really good New England IPA overall and I would drink more of it. It does lack a bit of that super-fresh hop flavor that some of the other New England IPAs have but the trade-off is that this one tastes a bit cleaner. I was on the fence quite a bit while reviewing this beer because at times it felt that the flavor wasn't quite there but then other times it really impressed me. It's just one of those beers that isn't consistent sip-by-sip but as a whole it is really impressive. Pick it up and enjoy it if you can find it fresh and local. It works out nicely in a can.

 

 

Hops are showcased greatly on the aroma, and the finish is clean even considering the heavy dry hopping, however I expect the yeast was allowed to ferment a bit to long, as the flavor is a bit soapy

 

 

 

Poured a cloudy light yellow body with minimal head and lace down the glass. Aroma is citric and even acidity to the point of being orange. The taste is orange juice/acidic sharp hops with a bit of sweetness in there as well and finishes with a sharp bite. Flavorful beer that isn't typical dry/bitter/citric dominated and like the sweetness from something other than grapefruit.