Fresh Hop Double Wanderlust: Crystal (2024)
Breakside Brewery - SE Taproom

 

2024-10-14
16oz can served in a curvy Fremont glass. Can is dated 09/19/24 (I think -- possible that it's 08). Wife bought it at a Town & Country last weekend.

Pours clear amber, biggish head, creamy with a large number of slightly bigger bubbles spotting the top. Smell pine and flowers and resin and honey.

Taste is on the boozy side, earthy bitterness, grainy sweetness. Resin bitter finish. Mango skin bitterness.

Mouthfeel is slightly on the heavy and sticky side. Smooth. Overall...maybe that 09 really was an 08. It's very tasty, but fresh hops have faded.

16oz can (packaged 8/16/2024—ancient! Says “Double Wanderlust w/ Crystal” on the bottom of the can) into a tulip. Pours a slightly hazed pale golden color with a white sudsy head.

Aroma is bursting with tropical sweetness. Less citrus and pine than peach and maybe mango. Almost has a Belgian candi sugar sweetness. Doesn’t immediately say “fresh hops” but let’s see how it tastes.

There’s a definite balance between the bitter and sweet here—maybe because this beer is almost 2 months old and it’s a double IPA, it’s already starting to fall apart a little. It’s good, no doubt, but I have to wonder if the fresh hop character is starting to fade. Under the sweetness there’s a clear sharp bitterness, more resinous than the aroma.

Mouthfeel is slicker and a bit more chewy than most of the fresh hop beers I’ve been having in the 6.5% range. Lingering aftertaste.

Overall I think this might have been a little better fresh—but I’m also not sure the bigger malt bill works so well with the fresh hops. The sweetness and malt forwardness seem to be almost in conflict with the hops, masking them, and don’t let them shine through.