Blurred Lines
El Segundo Brewing Company

Pours a pale gold/ straw color with moderate haze and a 3/4 inch white head. Smell is sweet citrus zest, some pine, and I thought I caught a whiff of green onion. Taste is of bright citrus notes and melon, with light hop bitterness at the end. Thin mouthfeel with high carbonation. Overall a nice IPA. A bit more body and lower carbonation would have benefited this one.

 

pours a very hazy pale-near-sickly amber-glinting yellow body with a billowing, rocky big-bubbled froth cream colored head that has moderate retention and leaves a low amount of sticky lacing patterns behind as it settles a crescent foam cap with defined halo

aroma is an odd bunch; its a little funky (stinky?) but muted and subtly sweet with a certain zest in the mix; the advertised pine is minimal at best

taste pivots and leads with lemon and grapefruit and a dash of pine (more evident than before) and a certain lushness, near white grape off the vine

mouthfeel is high carbonation and medium-light body that runs pillowy, mostly smooth but with the occasional carbo bite before finishing semi-dry and leaving a very hoppy dry but lively aftertaste in the vein of grapefruit

 

Now that I have begun really diving into the Bottle backlog here at Chez Woody, I am unstoppable! Yes, it means suspending The CANQuest (tm) for the moment, but the thought of being rid of these pesky bottles for once & for all is so heartening that I almost do not have words. These next bunch were all purchases through Tavour & as I have said repeatedly, I have no real beef with them. It was their inflexible local shipper + the continual adding to the backlog that led me to part ways.

From the Bottle: "Blurred Lines Hybrid IPA India Pale Ale"; "Living somewhere between a clear West Coast IPA and North East Hazy Juice Bomb. Big fruit aromatics contributed by the Mosaic and Citra Hops are complemented by lemon-zest and pine undertones from Centennial Hops. Then heavy doses of oat and wheat malt fermented with California ale yeast leave this beer a bit ... 'Blurry' about it's identity. Is it a real style? Nah ... but do you care?"; "Smell[,] Drink[,] Repeat".

I Pop!ped the cap & decided that the lines were blurred enough that I did not need to blur them further. As such, I started a VERY slow, gentle C-Line pour to the point that both my snail & my sloth were growing impatient. I sped things up when I saw the glacier beginning to close in on us! I was met with just under two fingers of dense, foamy, rocky, tawny head with excellent retention. Color was an oh-so-faintly-hazy Golden-Amber (SRM = > 5, < 7) & I would have chalked it up to chill haze, had it not been for the blurred lines. Nose was quite piney, Cascade hops, perhaps? with a tinge of sweet caramel malt beginning to assert itself. Mouthfeel was medium-to-full, not quite creamy, but on the approach. The taste evinced the PNW/Southern Hemisphere hybridization of which I am currently a fan. The sweet fruitiness of Mosaic finally wore thin with me, but when combined with PNW hops, things became MUCH more palatable. This was a beer ahead of its time, bringing a cool, minty pine/eucalyptus quality to a serving of tropical fruit salad. Yum! Finish was semi-dry to dry & a perfect blurring of the lines. YMMV.

L - moderately hazy burnt orange. Creamy head, not much retention, but great legs.

S - orange candy, gym socks, diacetyl, and white grape juice. A bit on the vinous side.

T - uh, did not expect this drop off in flavor. Not a whole lot going on here at all, but it's far from offensive. Neutral. Muted. Light lemon fruitiness, water (yes, water!), and some peary citrus. Store-bought grapes and thick peach... bread. Finishes with some tingling hoppiness and butter.

F - full and well-rounded. Hearty and satisfying.

O - at first, I was a little meh'd out by the underwhelming flavor, but it's growing on me. You can get into trouble with the drinkability here. It remains crisp, clean, and light on its feet.

 

L: Classic hazy west coast color, light flocculation, light body, nice 2 finger head, disappears rather quickly.

S: Stone fruit, barbarian yeasty, citrus

T: Citrus, stone fruit, bready

F: Medium body, bubble gum, not oily

O: For 7.7% and $14 a 4 pack of this style, this beer has everything. Taste, price point, and availability, you can't go wrong. I don't know why this brewery gets so much hate. The yeast is on point, such a balanced beer. It reminds me of their Citra which I am a HUGE fan, the difference is the finish and body; it's a fuller beer forsure. I absolutely love this brewery and this beer!

Very hazy gold with two fingers of eggshell head. Rings of lace form as level drops.
Smell is catty fruity bread crust malts.
Taste is piney catty orange zest bready malts.
Mouthfeel is medium with good carbonation. Finish is dry and hops oil forward.
Overall an interesting and different IPA. Blurred Lines for sure.
The can was really beat up. Someone must have dropped this can when putting it in the plastic cap carrier.
Could not read the date on the bottom of the can.

Generally if you ask a SoCal local how they feel about El Segundo Brewing, they’ll probably tell you that it delivers like In N Out after your latest Bubble Kush purchase. I mean, rock solid, right? But for the main man (that’s Raul), El Segundo has been hit or miss like if you wind up with scabies after bringing home the hostess from your local B Dubs. And is Blurred Lines an itchy one? Not at all! Like Lebron James in the clutch (his Heat days, not Lakers) this thing delivers. Now, it’s not a 3 pointer buzzer beater to win the game, think more like a lay up in the second quarter. It’s ok, but you’re not trippin.

Peace!

 

 

2018-06-27
22oz bottle served in a tulip. Bottled on 042718.

Pours a mostly clear light golden with a huge head. Smell is centennial.

Taste is centennial and biscuit. Some tropical flavors. Not super exciting, but good.

Mouthfeel is light, resinous. Overall, not super exciting, but good.

 

 

 

The stuff is a little hazy but the abundance of foam is quite lovely in the Maredsous goblet. Pleasant sudsy mouthfeel, quite fizzy, but on the murky side. Some orange flavor and a tang of lemon-lime peel. A slight mineral finish. The back of the throat taste is a little gunky and resiny.

Plenty of chopped hop taste but a modest bitter finish. More fruity and friendly than a lot of IPAs. I give credit to El Segundo for making a very decent hazy brew but it's not one of my favorites from them. From the 22 oz bottle purchased at Bottlecraft in North Park.