Super Compiler
Modern Times Beer

 

Pours an amber to reddish color with a huge, foamy head.

Tastes of citrus peel, with an added complexity due to a flowery whiff. Produces an orange pulp aroma, which gets enhanced by fruity blood orange. Turns even fruitier by adding wild berries to the aromas with a note of sweetening caramel malts.

Has a thin, scratchy mouthfeel with an unpleasant sugar sweetness, colliding with a hoppy bitterness, amped up by a sparkly carbonation.

Starts focussed on the hops, bitter and lemony until the whole thing collapses, once a super sweet fruit overload overwhelms the palate. From there on its basically sugar water, accompanied by a bitter lime note.

Pretty disasterous on the palate, while producing an intriguing nose.

Can poured into a Modern Times Beer glass

A: Pours rosey amber with a frothy light tan head that settles to a thin layer and leaves some spotty lacing.

S: Fruity, tropical, some citrus, definitely get some of the grape must, floral, slightly earthy, and sorta fruit punch sweetness.

T: Super fruity, just slightly tart, tropical, dragon fruit, guava, passion fruit, strawberry jam, faint melon, and some grape, citrus, orange, grapefruit, and lime, a little hibiscus, slight earthy tones, with the malt side hiding in the back seat.

M: On the fuller side of medium body, sticky, with moderate carbonation.

O: I can definitely say I've never had anything like this before. Yes, there are a ton of adjuncts in it, but I think it works. If you're gonna push the boundaries, in this case making a rosé inspired IPA, go all in.

 

It's my fault for not reading up on this beer to know that it was brewed will all of those added ingredients. The can label is so mesmerizing, and the description is real tiny and hard to see.

Poured light mahogany, slightly hazy, very little head, no lacing.

Smells and tastes like everything they added. The grapes are pretty dominant, though. Nice medium feel. Not something I would get again - drifting too close to wine or sparkling wine.

 

 

16oz can, served in a snifter glass. Pours a ruby red body, dark with perhaps a slight bit of cloudiness, one finger white head that retains fairly nicely, bits of lacing. Smell brings a fair bit of tropical fruit sweetness as well as a fair bit of floral notes. The guava and dragon fruit are not restrained here nor on the palate. There is a moderate sweet sugary malt backbone, though perhaps some of the sweetness is from the fruit additions. The grapes I am not too sure about, perhaps a little bit on the finish. Mouthfeel is lighter bodied, slightly thin though with plenty of depth, which I attribute to the fruit additions. Fair carbonation. Mild bitter floral and touch of citrus on the backend. Interesting fruited IPA, the hibiscus and dragon fruit stand out here the most.

 

 

 

 

Pour appears like a raspberry iced tea. Faint big bubble head on pink hued clear brew.

Aroma is floral, grape skin, hint of sweetness and a bit of alcohol.

Lightly tart flavor and sweet fruit. Grape must comes out more as it warms. Not sure what dragon fruit tastes like, this has a hint of floral dish soap. The hibiscus is earthy, herbal, sweet and I assume is what gives it the hint of tartness.

Moderate carbonation and just under medium body. Crisp.

Interesting and different, don’t get a ton of IPA characteristics, but an enjoyable brew.

 

 

Straight pour from a 16oz can to a tall, narrow pint (Green Cheek nucleated flute). This purchased at the brewery on March 9. This batch was, according to a black ink packaging date on the underside of the can, canned on February 18, 2018 ("02/18/2018 #014349"), making this can 21 days old at the time of consumption. Real psyched for this lil daddy.

Appearance (3.5): This pours out two extremely pale pink fingers of foam, capping a kind of fruit punch-colored body that's slightly hazy. The head dies down fairly quickly for an IPA, leaving little in the way of lace-just a few, fragile wisps of remnant foam, disintegrated by the cruel passage of time. (I'm not taking myself seriously, you guys.) Gorgeous body, lackluster head.

Smell (3.75): The dragonfruit really comes through in the nose, as does the hibiscus, swirling into each other to create a soft, sweet, juicy glimpse of kool-aid drenched summer days from your childhood. It keeps one foot in the present, though, with its hops offering some slick mango and limeade, reminding you that this is still a modern, American IPA.

Taste (3.5): This is . . . a touch confusing. Following the nose, dragonfruit and hibiscus show up right away, but I think it's the grape must that really gets up close and personal here. I mean, it tastes a lot like fruit punch. That said, a mixture of yellow grapefruit pith, key lime pulp, a somewhat resinous "dank" character, and grassy bitterness peeks through the curtains of sweet, slick fruit flavors offered by the grape must, dragonfruit, and hibiscus. Maybe I'm missing it, but I think the guava is lost in here-which is a damn shame, because I love pink guava so much that it's hard to convey to people who haven't known me for ten years. Fortunately, the hops come forward a bit more as the beer opens up, helping to balance the palate. I was afraid that the grassy and dank flavors weren't blending well, but it smoothes out fairly well as it goes on. There's malt here, surely, but it's totally lost in the sea of fruit flavors. God, there's a lot going on here.

Mouthfeel (3.75): The body feels slicker and more syrupy than you'd expect for an American IPA of this size (7.5% ABV), probably due to the fruit additions, but the hops help to dry it out well enough. The carbonation is fairly low key, washing across the palate evenly before foaming up modestly with a slight tingle before it goes down. No sign of booze.

Overall (3.75): I like this beer well enough, but it's kind of a hot mess. Not to the point that it falls apart, but there's just so much going on here that doesn't always harmonize. It's not like there's anything about this beer that sticks out as distasteful or "off," but it feels like some of the core components of this beer belong in different glasses. Still, I ain't mad. There's room in my glass for everything, and I'm glad I tried it. Recommended for the very curious.