Do You Even Zest?!
Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project

 

7/1/19...cloudy opaque mustard yellow. Lemon citrus nose. Oranges too. Citrus forward flavor and subtle light bitter. Loads of rind mixes it up. Juicy! Another win.

Poured from a 12 oz. can. Has a slightly hazy golden/orange color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell is dominated by citrus. Taste is strong of oranges, light vanilla, moderate bitterness. Feels medium/full bodied in the mouth and overall is an enjoyable beer.

This is still the only beer I've tried from Crooked Stave, but it was a winner! Tons of fruity citrus notes in the can pop smell, and in the taste as well. Nice balance, a bit on the sweeter end of the spectrum with less of a hop bite. Very drinkable and smooth, although not a super-engaging mouthfeel.

 

 

12oz can. Poured out a slightly cloudy, golden orange color with a small, white head of foam. It smelled of citrus and toasted caramel. Zesty citrus taste with a sharp piney bitterness and toasted caramel finish.

I'm trying this at the Water Tower Taproom in Montgomery, Alabama and it's disappointing. It poured a hazy yellow with white head that is leaving some lace. The scent had faint ripe fruit flare. The taste was nicely balanced and easy to drink with dank fruit notes. The mouthfeel was lighter in body with good carbonation. Overall its a poor DIPA.

 

Happy 4th of July, 2019 aka Independence Day for these United States! Since I spent a couple/few days celebrating CANada Day on 01 July, it only seems right & fitting to spent this four-day weekend drinking, reviewing & rating AmeriCAN-owned & made beers. Here goes! Cheers!

From the CAN: "Juicy*Tropical*Citrus*Hazy"; "Elevated from our experimental hazy IPA series, Do You Even Zest!? is a limited release loaded with an immense amount of hops and freshly zested citrus. This Cirtus Double IPA was born out of our playful nature as brewers looking to challenge the status quo. Our team meticulously zests fresh citrus for each and every batch, which begs the question, do you even zest?"; "cultured in yeast [undersigned] Chad Yakobson Brewmaster"; "Pack In. Enjoy! Pack Out."

Nothing to report on the Crack! this time, other than everything was Green & Go! I went with a slow, steady C-Line Glug until it became obvious that clarity was not a CANcern. I then throttled up, allowing it to form just over two fingers of dense, foamy, rocky, eggshell-white head with moderate retention. Color was a deeply-cloudy Amber (SRM = > 7, < 9). Nose was really citrusy & zesty & I was reminded of the first time that I was taught to make zest.

The CAN depicts the method of unwinding the peel from its fruit using a knife, as is a common thing at bars, where the "tape" is used as a garnish. I was taking HomeEc & we were using a grater to make zest to be baked into bread! If you think that zest smells good, you should smell it in baked bread! Yum.

The nose had a lemony-oranginess that was highly reminiscent of the bread prep. Mouthfeel was medium, but the softness that I had noted in their earlier beers now translated to a definite creaminess! It was like a liquefied Dreamsicle! Orange & vanilla with a little grapefruit to keep things from being too sweet. Think fruit smoothie meets Dreamsicle. Yum. Finish was dry, but more citrusy-bitter than hoppy bitter. It is marked as a "Limited Release" probably because of the time & effort that goes into creating the zest, but I REALLY hope that they bring this one back full-time!

The hazy pale golden yellow beer pours out into a Duvel glass with a 3/4” white head that recedes slowly but visibly to a cap and then a fairly large thin irregular shaped island of foam while leaving a web of large patches of lacing. Sipping creates slender arches and a moderate amount of leggy lacing at first but that eventually changes to lots of medium and small patches of lacing..

The aromas are full of lots of citric zest and a bit of tropical fruit with some malt way in the background. There’s orange zest, lemon zest, a touch of mango and even a bit of grapefruit flavor.

The flavors are similar to what is expected from the nose in that there’s a lot of orange and lemon citric zest with orange and lemon. There’s also a hint of mango, grapefruit and malt but the orange zest bitterness is very forward and reasonably intense so that any sweetness serves only to take the rough edges off the bitterness.

The mouthfeel is medium bodied and fairly smooth with the light persistent carbonation. The finish is fairly long and the tropical fruit flavor and any malt sweetness disappear fairly soon while on leaving the citric zest bitterness and an almost totally concealed bit of hop bitterness to slowly fade in a long, nicely bitter dry ending.

This beer, as implied by the name is mostly about the citric zest. The aromas/flavors are dominated by the citric zest (e.g., orange and lemon) that almost conceal a touch or mango, grapefruit and toasted malt. As a once in a while beer this is enjoyable and fairly drinkable. However I’d probably not want more than one occasionally. Overall this is a beer worth trying if you are fan of citric zest bitterness.

 

 

Never had a beer from these guys and I wasn't as all disappointed. Very smooth citrus hops and zest tones perfectly crafted around a very light grainy biscuit like malt. Even though its a double IPA it drinks so smooth light and fruity. Would love to have this again!