IPA: Orange, Pacific Jade, Citra, Amarillo
Partizan Brewery

 

Purchased from the brewery recently, coming in a 330ml slim brown bottle, bottle-conditioned; bottled on 29/08/2013, BB 29/11/2013, served lightly-chilled in a straight imperial pint glass. Notes: according to one of the brewers at Partizan, this beer uses orange pulps and peel in the brewing process, and I was advised not to pour everything from the bottom of the bottle into the glass as the sediments from the orange zest/peel could render an extremely bitter feel on the palate.

A: pours an usual pale orangey colour, coming with very mild carbonation and a thin off-white foamy head, while the yeast sediments and minced orange peels inevitably find their way into the nectar, but not looking horrible.
S: since highly exotic fruity and aromatic citric hops are used in this brew, the true influence from orange peels and pulps is hard to discern on the nose; in general the hop aroma comes intense, highly citric/grapefruity, as well as lightly leather-ish (estery), against a mildly grainy&biscuity malty backbone. A good swirl would reveal more assertive acidity which is easily associated with freshly squeezed orange juice, so oranges do leave a subtle signature on the nose. Very nice, in fact.
T: the foretaste is like one’s normal IPA using these high alpha, resinous and exotic fruity hop varieties, albeit with a lighter malt backbone, but soon the rough bitterness with a savoury touch from orange peels and pretty sour fruitiness from the juice come to prevail, combining with hop bitterness to render an unusual finish where the acidic-bitter edge of orange peels lingers on top of a moderate level of hop bitterness; quite clean, tannic-dry but not too chewy.
M&O: lightly refreshing, medium-bodied, with a nice mix of orange peels&juice with citric hops, but in the middle of each sip the acute acidity from the orange ingredients does serve as distraction and takes away a few points in terms of overall enjoyment.