Magnitude
Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project

 

 

Getting back to their grass roots of IPA, the Crooked Stave team departs from their hazy ways and gets back to basics on a grassy, West Coast styled IPA.

Double Dry Hopped and focusing on bitterness, Magnitude pours with a hazy light golden hue and builds a fluffy white cap. Its tangy and hoppy scent is herbal, pleasantly vegetal and chocked with citrus fruit. Its first sip is briskly generous with hints of honey, agave and light granola.

A toasted flavor of cashew is quickly surpassed by the hops as the ale travels across the middle palate. A pop of citrus delivers flavors of orange, grapefruit, lemon and honeydew; all seemingly on the slightly under ripened side. As hints of pineapple rind, mango peel and yuzu join the fruit complexities, the ale quickly transitions to an herbal bitterness fueled with lemon verbena, lemongrass, green tea and cedar.

With the flavor of Hazy IPA but the body of something slighlty more West Coast, the medium bodied beer finishes herbal and bitter with the taste of muddled citrus and tropical fruit peels resonating loudly in a medium long aftertaste with the spice of gin botanicals in tow.

 

spotted these around a handful of beer stores nearby, finally snagged one at 2 weeks old and dumped into a snifter after sitting in my 32 degree passenger seat for a bit. this brew is a light, light yellow, quite cloudy but no haze going on here, with a big ol 2 finger white head that's left some pretty bits of lacing behind. the nose has a lot of grassy notes, with lemon peel, various tropical fruits, cracker like maltiness and just a hint of straight hop bitterness biting at the tip of the nostrils. i wish i knew more about the specifics of hops to guess what went in this. flavor profile is heavier on the fruit notes at first, quickly moving to a very slightly sweetened light malt backing. there's a grassy note in there somewhere, but mostly it always heads back to mango, peach and some grapefruit. you know the drill an ever so slight bitterness joins the party, lingers for a few seconds and then ducks out. it's quite tasty but some sips just sort of hit one note. medium bodied, a tad fizzy in the mouth and not very lingering. a tasty lil beer i'm glad i picked up, can't complain.