Smokestack Lightning
Parallel 49 Brewing Company

Smokestack Lightning India Pale Ale from Parallel 49 in collaboration with Rossland Brewing - 7.0% ABV - This pours a copper colour with a finger thick white head with good retention and lacing. The nose leads with citrus and pine hops and some sweet bready malts. The taste starts much the same, but leads more towards a sweet caramel in the finish. The carbonation is just about perfect. Just enough to cut through the bitterness. I enjoyed this beer. The whole Brews Brothers Collaboration pack has been quite enjoyable and I hope they do it again.

Poured from a 341ml bottle.

L: Hazy orange and even a little bit of a yellow hue to it. White foamy head that leaves nice lacing on the glass.

S: Tropical citrus. A little but if pine smell all coming from the hops, almost a little sweet as well.

T: Lots of the fruity flavors with a pine tasting bitterness.

F: Full body mouth feel with nice amount of carbination to it.

O: Not to bad of an IPA even though IPA aren't my favorite.

Brewed in collaboration with Rossland Beer Company.

Appearance - Pours a amber orange with a finger of bubbly white head.

Smell - earthy and floral hops, hint of pine resin, grapefruit peel, tropical fruits, and bready caramalts.

Taste - Hit right away with the earthy and floral hops followed by the hint of pine resin, grapefruit peel, tropical fruits. The bready caramalts round out the brew.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes a moderate bitterness from the hops.

Overall - An IPA that has a good hop profile. I found the aroma lacked a little considering the style. Otherwise, an enjoyable IPA.

 

Nothing fancy or special here. Quite simply, this is a solid, tasty IPA.

 

Amber and a bit cloudy. Bit of melon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

341ml bottle, a part of the Brews Brothers collaboration pack, this time with the Rossland Beer Company. Blues great Howlin' Wolf's rendition of 'Smokestack Lightning' gets the nod for this one.

This beer pours a clear, bright pale copper amber hue, with three fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and well bubbly ecru head, which leaves some streaky, broken webbed lace around the glass as it evenly sinks away.

It smells of bready, grainy caramel malt, mildly dank pine resin, softly acrid orange, white grapefruit, and lemon pith, a twinge of earthy yeast, further innocuous tropical fruit notes, and a suggestion of a hint of steely alcohol. The taste is more of the same - grainy, bready pale and caramel malts, muddled pine forest floor detritus, fading orange and generic underripe grapefruit, a growing sharp flintiness, and additional weak floral, leafy, and earthy hops.

The carbonation is adequate in its active and probing nature, the body a solid medium weight, and mostly smooth, both hop and alcohol comin' a' knockin', but not really following through on their particular menace. It finishes on a strong drying trend, that minerality really starting to tie one on, while the hops continue dancing on the waning malt's grave.

A decent enough IPA - I was half-expecting there to be a smoked component, given the choice of name, and the last few brews from this mixed-pack. Anyways, a plain, if in a good way, hoppy and tasty IPA, nothing special, but sometimes that's all it takes to get your motor running, eh?

A nice easy drinking IPA. Frothy, lightly hopped, slightly sweet, pleasant.