5th Anniversary Ale
Roughtail Brewing Co.

Pours a bright, full orange with a hint of haze to the transparency. Head is two fingers of white foam that is dense and rocky on top. Head retention is fair. Aroma is a bite and a snap of hops, hitting notes of piney, resiny, herbal and citrusy with a little dank hop bite towards the rear. Earthy, caramely and bready malts firm up the aroma, but don't out-number the hops, instead lightly keeping them from getting too rowdy. Flavor profile is herbal, resiny, dank, piney and citrusy hops in a syrupy mixture. Earthy malts add a little bite and additional bitterness, with light bready and caramely malts working to sooth the finish. Mouth feel is lightly gritty with a medium-thick consistency. Overall, hearty and sticky with a big bite. It's a fun and lively way to celebrate an anniversary.

Served in a 15.5oz Speigalau tulip from a 16oz can.

 

 

 

 

Cloudy orange colored pour with a white head. Strong citrus/tropical fruit aroma. Bitter taste will flavors of orange, grapefruit, and mango mainly standing out.

16oz can. Poured out a cloudy, thick orange color with a small, off-white head of foam. It smelled of pineapple, grapefruit and sweet caramel. Sweet tropical fruit flavor with a toasted caramel sweetness.

 

Had it on tap. Poured with a nice head and it has good lacing. Deep orange-yellow body, very juicy looking. Pleasant fragrant citrus and floral smell. Very strong orange flavor with some grapefruit, peach, and a bit of ginger ale. Enjoyed it very much!

 

 

 

Nabbed a 4-pack at Central Market in Austin, TX. Cost was high...something like ~$18 a 4 pack of 16 fl oz cans.

"Anniversary ale." " packed full of flaked wheat and oats." Triple dry hopped with "Denali, El Dorado, and Idaho 7."

APPEARANCE: Hazy pale orange body. Nontransparent and seemingly unfiltered.

Head is off-white and has a thick consistency. Not as creamy or soft as would be ideal, but robust, lasting a good ~10 minutes in spite of its high ABV.

AROMA: Tropical fruit. Exotic fruit. Mango, orange, passionfruit, guava, candied citrus. Wheat and 2-row round out the malt aromatics.Traces of papaya and lychee. There seems to be a lot of diverse hop flavour here, and it seems cool and fresh.

Suggests a soft refreshing IPA with moderate hop pungency and a devilishly well disguised ABV. Certainly fresh and appealing. Seems balanced in terms of hops and malts.

TASTE: Loaded with tropical and exotic juicy fruits, bursting with papaya, candied mango, tangerine, orange, and passionfruit...maybe even some of those odd bright fruits one sees in Southeast Asia that I forget the names of (dragonfruit?). It's exotic.

Wheat leavens the malt backbone, but there's 2-row sweetness to cancel out any overt hop bitterness. Oats impart no flavour, but I imagine help contribute to the haziness and smooth mouthfeel.

TEXTURE: Refreshing and soft if a bit dry and scratchy for an IPA. Alcohol warmth is slightly noticeable. Full-bodied. Has a heavy presence on the palate. Could be softer, lighter-bodied, and less warm to good effect.

OVERALL: Not as dazzling as Roughtail's Everything Rhymes With Orange, but it's more than competent fare in the Johnny-come-lately turbid IPA substyle and I do like it for what it is even if it leaves something to be desired in terms of hop pungency and depth of flavour. I'll enjoy working my way through my 4-pack, but I wouldn't pay this price for it again. The hop profile is interesting but not unique or special and the hop flavours don't come together as well as one would hope. Well-executed, but it's clear this is more experimental than it is fully formed...which is kind of what I expect in a one-off anniversary (I)IPA.

The alcohol warmth, slightly dragging mouthfeel, heavy body, and lack of hop pungency are what really hold it back, but I do dig the exotic fruity hop flavours and I think if they could scale this down to a pale ale with the same hop profile it could be terrific.

High C+ (3.24) / ABOVE AVERAGE