Lila
Omnipollo

 

 

As is typical with Omnipollo cans, no date stamp anywhere to be found. It is, however, Batch 2 (yellow can).

The color is a somewhat murky, opaque gold. Not much head rises up as the beer is poured, and what does appear settles in just as quickly. Weak lace retention, small islands of lace float on the top of the beer.

So going into this, there's a lot of potential components to be found. On the nose, lemon and grapefruit peel is evident right away. Balancing out that mild tartness and acidity there's a very present milk sugar sweetness that softens the aromas nicely and imparts a vanilla component. Overall the aromas amount to something very similar to a lemon bar. There's definitely some underlying cinnamon, which I hope will emerge more forcefully as the beer warms a little.

Again, very lemon-forward. Right off the bat that tart lemon hits you very similarly to a Lemonhead candy. A re-emergence of that vanilla and a hint of baker's spice lead into flavors similar to a lemon custard. The cinnamon struggles to emerge. Overall, while I thoroughly enjoy the flavors, the bold description of "whipped lemon cream, almond frosted, cinnamon roll" ultimately just leaves me with nailing the whipped lemon cream, but falling short in everything else.

Medium weight and carbonation, very soft beer. Smooth going down with the tiniest hint of a pucker from the lemon. Citrus acidity imparts a little dryness to it, but a good mouthfeel overall.

All in all, people want to know... are all those crazy combos found here? The answer is no. Definitely whipped lemon cream from that combo of vanilla and zesty citrus. A little cinnamon on the nose combines with that vanilla component to suggest cinnamon rolls, but unfortunately they were nowhere in the flavors. As for the almond frosting, I got no nuttiness but there is a definite lemon meringue or lemon custard quality throughout that left me disappointed by the description, but not by the beer.

 

 

Tasted in a Spiegelau IPA glass from a one pint can on January 16, 2019. Whipped lemon cream, almond frosted, cinnamon roll IPA brewed with natural flavors.

Lemon yellow brew; quite hazy and nearly opaque, although light does penetrate at the edges. Head production is adequate, although retention leaves something to be desired.

Surprisingly bitter and herbal on the nose, with basil, lemon, grapefruit peel, and vanilla.

An interesting blend of flavors on the palate, with a decent tartness from the lemon cream, blending with bright citrus and tropical hops and a smooth malt base. Don't know if I get anything from almond or frosted cinnamon rolls; perhaps a bit of icing flavor on the back half.

Very smooth on the palate; lively, active, quite drinkable.

Some reviewers seem annoyed that this beer tastes as advertised; on the other hand, I'm a little disappointed that it doesn't taste MORE like the advertised profile. It's a touch sour and tart, but not any more so than other sour IPAs - and far less than an American Wild Ale. I expected a little more sweetness, perhaps the IPA's answer to the pastry stout.

Instead, what I got was a very enjoyable, really tasty, slightly sour DIPA. I'm perfectly OK with that.

 

With the popularity growth of dry hopping and sour ale, Omnipollo's imperial IPA with lemon does almost the different. But loaded with alcohol and this sour imperial IPA, like Stacy's Mom, has something going on.

Lila didn't exactly bring us to our knees, but its starts with a yellow sided golden color, glowing brightly with a translucent haze. Its cottony white lather draws in the nose with a striking scent of lemon, herb, spice and light custart-like creamy scent. As the malts gently massage the early palate, those meringue, custart and angelfood cake character rolls softly along.

As the hops rush to overshadow the malts, the middle palate starts with a white grapefruit, lime, gooseberry and passionfruit exotic fruit flavor. And here comes the lemon. Quickly overwhelming the palate with lemon curd, all other hop nuances are thrown to the wayside. Bitter with the taste of lemon peel and lemon pepper, any glimpse of pine or grassiness to quickly reduced to a verbena, sassafras and green tea character to close.

Medium bodied and trending tart, bitter and drying, the beer never really displays the "frosted almond" or "cinnamon roll" character that is talks about on the can, but its adventurous lemon character gives the IPA a sense of key 'lemon' pie. A long and rindy bitterness is accompanied with a pep of botanical gin to give the ale a final curiosity in taste.

Disappointing. Tastes very strongly of lemon with faint flavors of cream. Much more sour/tart than I expected. I was expecting a better mouth feel for a milkshake ipa. Wouldn't buy it again.

 

A: The beer is hazy dark yellow in color and seems to have a high amount of visible carbonation, as evidenced by lots of bubbles clinging to the inner side of the glass. It poured with a quarter finger high white head that left a short head on the surface and a collar consisting of medium-sized bubbles around the edge.
S: Sour aromas of lemons are present in the nose.
T: The taste follows the smell, having sour flavors of lemon cream, but is a little more rounded out and has hints of almonds and cinnamon and subtle bits of sweetness.
M: It feels light- to medium-bodied and tart on the palate and there is a significant amount of sourness that makes your mouth pucker up.
O: I didn't find this beer to be very drinkable because the sourness from the lemons really overpowered the other flavors. It could have used a better balance among the ingredients.

Serving type: can

 

My beer store guy warned me it's sour (he knows I'm not a fan of sours), and now I'm telling you, it's seriously sour! Sour lemon carpet-bombs the palate, and then barely pulls back enough to reveal something like a little piece of a Cinnabon roll sitting in the middle of the tart-scorched earth the sip leaves behind... And that's about it for nuance... Medium-bodied, kinda caramel-orange/yellow colored beer - totally opaque... Had a finger of off-white foam to start... Relatively expensive for an 8% abv tallboy - particularly as it is brewed and canned locally at Great South Bay Brewery in Bayshore, Long Island - it was either $7 or $8...

I'm not a sour lemon guy, but I find myself still drinking it and totally not hating it, but maybe its some form of self-abuse or indicative of an addictive tendency on my part... I think if you understand how totally overpoweringly tart this beer is, and you like that kinda thing, you're gonna love this - and the more seasoned sour drinkers out there may find all sorts of hidden character elements... But for the typical IPA drinker who's expecting a "whipped lemon cream almond frosted cinnamon roll" (like it says on the can), it's not gonna be that... lol

Omnipollo's conctions are always described with a wild combination of tasting notes and actual ingredients, case in point: "whipped lemon cream almond frosted cinnamon roll". But they sometimes fall short of the complexity that they're selling. Lila lives up to it, worth the $9 tallboy price, easily one of Omnipollo's best experiments that I've tried so far.
Pours hazy yellow with a creamy head and smells like lemon and burnt sugar, which are also the entry tasting notes, before a super tart lemon body overpowers everything else. This is the most tart beer I've had outside of Alvarado Street's #margtime. It's San Pellegrino Limonata levels of sour. I found myself repeating a small, heavy pour into my wine glass so that I could regain the sugary, creamy head for each sip, because without that to soothe it is a little overpoweringly sour.
Of course, the great can art is half the reason to buy Omnipollo, so that's cool too.