Pic-A-Hop Cente -nnial
Parallel 49 Brewing Company

Not sure what to make of this one. Smell is unique but a bit interesting, smells like aged tropical fruit and some malt expression? Taste is not what one would hope compared to the smell, but I'm not sure exactly what I'm tasting. The fruitiness on the nose definitely doesn't seem to be present in the taste, and there is some weird sharp funk going on with some standard bitter citrus rind flavours. The body is somewhat viscous, and coats the tongue, leaving an aftertaste that is more complex and changing, but not enjoyable. Not sure what to make of this. Kind of makes me cautious about brews that list this hop in the future?

Hazy amber color. Poured a medium head that turned into medium size bubbles in half a minute and a patchy skiff in two minutes. It was hard to see with the haze, but there was a moderate flow of tiny bubbles from the bottom of the glass. Left many small dots of lacing.

Strong sharp barnyard smell dominates. Something sweet and some vegetal hops join in. There might be a slight light roasted malt, but the barnyard almost obliterates anything else.

Moderate to strong bitters. A very strong barnyard kept jumping up in waves. My mouth would get used to it and then moving my tongue would cause another wash of barnyard. There is something almost hidden in there that might be some hops. The aftertaste is a massive rush of barnyard, or maybe even barn gutter. There is a slight taste of something charred: plastic, rubber, or maybe asphalt. There is an interesting flavor sneaking around behind the back of the aftertaste, but it is not enough to keep this from getting poured down the drain.

Moderate tongue tingling. Turned into a coarse bubbled foam. A bit oily and gummy feeling towards the end.

One of four IPAs in their 2022 Pic-A-Hop package showcasing individual hops. This is a great idea. Unfortunately there is no information on the brewer's web site about this, but web searches suggest they have been doing this for several years. Each IPA has a different ABV and style. I would have made them identical with the exception of the hops. This is next to useless as a way to compare hops.

The label calls this a "Session IPA". The name on the label is also hyphenated incorrectly, which irritates me for some reason.

The barnyard is crazy excessive. Did someone forget to clean the equipment before making this? The burned flavor is not as strong as the Pic-A-Hop Enigma IPA from a couple of years ago, but it certainly reminds me of it. I poured this down the drain after drinking half of it. At least I didn't need to rinse the taste out of my mouth with tequila this time. Drinking a different beer was sufficient.

I hesitated getting one of these Pic-A-Hop packages for a couple of years after the 2020 release, and now I'm solidly in the never again camp. I wish that someone else would do this with otherwise identical IPAs.