Fresh Hop Crikey
Reuben's Brews

White fruity smell like white grapes,apple, and pear off the start. Sweet
Any hop with “c” in it is what I like & this has a bunch.
Too malty for me but I respect the crispness.

 

Pours brass like in color; excellent clarity with dense white head; great retention and well above average lacing.

Nose is a fruity, sappy pine, maybe some lemon; the fruitiness just sort of hides in the background, almost juicy fruit like; malt is quite present adds this light sweetness, lightly grainy.

Taste again has some fruit character but it’s quite overpowered; grainy malt that lightly sweetens the piney sap character, touch spicy on the finish.

Medium body; mostly dry finish, big time tongue prickling hops dance across the tongue, moderate bitterness; really clean beer, shows it’s a big beer but it’s not overwhelming; background warming.

 

 

 

Had on tap at Special Brews Lynnwood, WA.

 

32oz crowler (just filled today) into a tulip. Pours a crystal clear golden color with a big monstrous head (my fault for an overly aggressive pour).

Aroma is dank, tropical fresh hops: pineapple, maybe some mango and peach, also some pine. Simcoe is unmistakable. Pretty resinous.

Taste is much lighter on the palate. Pale sweet malt and clean bright tropical Simcoe hops. Nicely balanced with a sharply bitter finish. This is an old-school West Coast IPA, which I like.

Mouthfeel is balanced, a touch heavier than some of the other fresh hop beers. Seems a contradiction that it's lighter on the palate but has a heavier mouthfeel, I have to think that must have something to do with the balance between the malt and hops.

Overall a well-built, classic West Coast IPA, but I can't say that I could have picked this out of a lineup of IPAs as a fresh hop.

 

2019 version, canned 9/10/19. 16oz can poured into 14oz teku. Poured a very lightly hazy medium yellow color with an inch of white head that had good retention and very little lacing.

Nice citrus and pine hops dominate, with just a slight malt aspect.

Very similar on the tongue, with the pine notes showing through a bit better.

The body was on the light side of medium, smooth, and had a medium finish.

Drinkability was nice, as expected, I could drink a few more of these.

Overall, a very nice brew, certainly worth your time if you see it.

 

2019-09-21
16oz can served in a pint glass. Canned 09/10/19.

Pours clear golden with a big fluffy head that fades fairly quickly to some sparse lacing and a thick ring. Smell is simcoe, green and lush.

Taste is neat -- kind of a soft lead up of fresh greenness, pine and lemon kind of vibes, and then a sudden shift to bitterness, still with lemon and pine, but morphing to zest and resin.

Mouthfeel is soft and comforting. Overall, nice beer. My memory of regular Crikey is that it's pretty sharp -- this is gentle in comparison.

---
2020-09-18
Bought this at the brewery the other day, canned on 2020-09-15. Looking back at last year's review, I get a similar vibe but less of a soft lead-in. Mouthfeel might be a bit thinner and waterier than previous, wouldn't call it soft and comforting. Although it's still gentler than regular Crikey, I think.

---
2024-09-24
Canned 2024-09-17. This is still a great beer.

 

2019 version. Canned 9/10/2019. This batch uses fresh Amarillo hops, but in general Crikey is made with Citra, Amarillo, Simcoe, Chinook, and Magnum so I don't believe this beer is 100% fresh hops and I also don't know the percentage that Amarillo makes up of the recipe.

Pours a clear gold with a small head that was gone quickly. Aromas of citrus and tropical fruit, but not as strong as I would expect from a fresh hop beer.

Starts with a light bready malt taste, then I pick up some pine and a bitter citrus (e.g. grapefruit). Long slightly bitter finish on this one. This might be placebo effect, but I notice the Amarillo on the finish. In past years, Reuben's has made a Fresh Hop Amarillo pale ale and it reminds me of that. Very well balanced.

This is the best Crikey I've ever had. It might be that it's super fresh or it might be the fresh hops but it's special. Some fresh hop beers like to be a punch in the face with hops, but this strikes a balance and is essentially delivering the ultimate version of an already delicious IPA.

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a medium golden amber with a fine, two finger white head with great retention and thick lacing. Aroma of lightly caramel malt, citrus and tropical fruit hops, grapefruit, lemon, melon, mixed tropical fruit; aromatic. Flavor is pale malt with a hint of caramel, citrus, piney and dank hops, lemon, melon, mixed light stone and light tropical fruit, light pine. Finishes with lots of fruit forward herbal hops, but only moderate bitterness. Medium bodied with light to medium creaminess. Yay! It's fresh hop season again and today I got two from a pair of my favorite breweries (this and Fremont). I liked Crikey and looked forward to this fresh hopped variant. It seems a bit different hop bill, with the base IPA more pine forward. As expected, there is more herbal flavor here, but at the expense of bitterness in the finish. The hops are fine, making this a great introduction into this year's fresh hop season.

Pours transparent golden, over a finger of rocky white head.
Nose is yeasty, some citrus, berry, and melon notes.
Taste is grapefruit, honeydew, piney, herbal finish, almost like juniper.
Mouthfeel is medium, soft carb.
Not a bad IPA.

 

Slightly hazed pale orange with three fingers of yellow-tinted head. Spotty, soapy lacing.

Classic wet hop aroma: spicy, citrusy, earthy goodness. A little honey in there, too.

The taste is definitely pretty delicate in comparison: a lot of great spiciness throughout, but also some weak tea, weaker citrus, a little honey again and just the slightest dull, earthy bitterness. No malt backbone to speak of.

Medium bodied with just a little creamy heft to the feel and light carbonation cutting through.

Pleasant and easy-drinking. The nose outshines the other characteristics. Would gladly have again.