Sofa King Dreamy
Payette Brewing

 

Bad all around

Pours a very cloudy golden color with a finger width foamy head. Head retention is good. Lacing is very good. Floral aroma with some tropical fruit in the background. Tropical fruit up front on the taste with a mild floral bitterness at the end. Light to medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Very smooth and well balanced.

 

 

 

 

 

12oz can pours darker gold with a giant white head; nose and palate lean sweet and, yes, tropical...juicy and layered tropical fruit notes with a sweet backbone, though the malt isn't overpowering by and stretch. Bitterness seems restrained; this is good.

Draft at Payette. Pale golden pour, small head. Aroma is light and fruity, tropical. Taste brings more subtle tropical fruit flavors, mildly sweet and bitter. Smooth, refreshing.

 

finally some innovation from payette, nothing more disappointing than going to the taproom six months after your previous trip and having the lineup be identical. anyway, this is a good continuation of this little series they have going, everything is a series with these guys, aura, embers, sofa king, 12 gauge, its weird, but at least its something new. dubbed tropical, that makes sense, these hops are fruity and the base beer is strong and sweet, could easily be fermented a little drier and become a double, its right on the fence as it is, and there is plenty of residual sweetness here. clear which is nice, or close to it, with an orange glow and a pretty high shine, short lived white head from the tap. smells sugary to me a little, but i also definitely get mango and papaya, even a faint sorachi ace hop note almost, its bright and juicy and summery, lemon leaning, maybe a bit of canned pineapple and coconut, a decent pina colada thing, and its there in the flavor too. teeth coating sweetness at the end though is distracting and a little out of place, unnecessary because the hops already make this pop. mango and orange as it warms, i could swear this is fruited. a little alcohol coming through and middle of the road bitterness too but it works, and a little light on the carbonation but not bad. i liked this but more than anything i am just happy to drink a new payette beer at this point. it should do well for them when summer hits...

edit: this is way less good in the cans, some sediment to it, an almost gray tinted in color, fish food floating, and without really a start or a finish, to me this was vastly superior on tap. have seen this look with some sofa king sunny cans in the past too, not sure whats up with their quality here lately, but will leave draft scores from brewery visit mostly in place as a show of good faith, but they had better get this cleaned up quick...

edit: the draft has gone downhill too, and while this has a unique profile to it, as in i could pick it out of a crowd of 100 beers, its for all the wrong reasons, sweet, cheap tasting, and lingering a little metallic on the palate forever. one of the weaker payette offerings, reducing a few scores to reflect the current state of this thing...

edit: quite a bit better on a recent visit to the brewery, look, quality, freshness, and overall refinement, and i am again reminded this is a pretty unique hop profile. pulling a few scores back up since it seems like they are back on track with it, you never know with these guys, but this is trending up finally for me and i have to give them credit for that...