Thundera
Modern Times Beer

 

16oz can from Brewers Haven. Hazy golden pour with a lasting, thick creamy head. Full tropical fruit aroma, melon, mango, papaya leads into a big fruity taste. Juicy, full.

 

Starts out a little juicy but has a very nice dry and hoppy finish.

16oz can served in an imperial nonic. Pours dull, burnished orange with a hazy clarity and a tight, quarter inch, bright white head. Nose reveals notes of soft cantaloupe and citrus rind. Taste follows nose with the addition of crackery malts and a hint of herbal/medicinal bitterness at the finish. Mouthfeel is light in body with an assertive carbonation. Overall, nicely balanced without being overly juicy. Nice offering.

I'm too busy drinking this beer so I'll keep it short. Modern Times nails it again. If you like their other beers, give this one a try. It's just as good as the others.

 

Perhaps my new favorite session IPA. Look is very hazy, nearly entirely opaque with a very strong head. Smell is citrusy with a bit of hops. Taste is more tropical/mango than citrusy with bitterness in the back. Feel is super light and lower hop content allows the mangoesque to shine through. Highly recommend, much like the rest of Modern Times’s catalogue. Superior brewmanship.

L: Ripe pineapple, gold, translucent but allowing much more light through than your standard hazy. Thick, white head
S: Grapefruit, pine, grassy.
T: Grapefruit and tropical flavors especially mango, but almost more akin to a greener mango than overly ripe. Piney and a very satisfying bitterness throughout, including a bitter aftertaste
F: Medium body, not too thick or creamy. Can is labeled as vegan so I guess that means no lactose here
O: One of the most bitter hazy IPAs I've had in recent memory and I'm here for it. Very juicy and the grapefruit and piney notes are executed well

Excellent head production, retention, and lacing, with a clumpy, creamy, snow-white foam of several fingers slowly leaving behind wide scattered fields. Body is definitely hazy, but not pulpy, translucent in thinner portions of the glass.

Nose is incredibly hoppy and juicy, remarkable for the ABV, and delivering exactly what you'd expect from tons of Citra and Idaho 7: a melange of citrus and tropical fruit, bright herbs, and a strong dankness. Mango, papaya, mandarin orange, pepper, and tons of herb.

Delivers on the palate, as well, with an assault of hop juice (at fairly low bitterness) well beyond what most beers can deliver at this ABV. At the same time, it has the restrained, low sweetness and moderate graininess appropriate for a single IPA. Not as dank as the nose, with some brighter, grassier, minty herbal notes early, and a more pungent earthiness on the back half. If the nose is slightly more tropical than citrus (only slightly), the reverse is true on the palate, with slightly more citrus than tropical.

This is a really fantastic NEIPA, surprising given the sub-4.0 rating at time of review, but not at all surprising given Modern Times' pedigree.

 

Can Dec 2020

 

 

Can poured into a Modern Times Beer glass

A: Pours hazy golden orange amber with a frothy eggshell white head that settles to a firm layer and laces very nicely.

S: Resinous spicy pine, citrus, tropical and stone fruit, light earthy herbal notes, biscuity slightly bready malt, and caramel sweetness.

T: Spicy pine hits first, quickly followed by citrus, tropical, and stone fruit, tangerine, lemon lime, peach, apricot, mango, papaya, and passion fruit, slight herbal earthy notes, floral, biscuity slightly bready malt, and a little caramel sweetness.

M: A little on the fuller side of medium body, moderate carbonation, soft on the palate.

O: Definitely a Hazy IPA, rather than a NEIPA. Solid amount of bitterness keeps everything very nicely balanced. I'm not usually big on Idaho 7 hops, but they were used perfectly here. Good stuff.

16oz canned early November and poured into an IPA nonic.

A: Cloudy, hazy gold with a fluffy off-white head; almost milky with some turbidity.

S: Soft hop profile with generic notes of citrusy fruit and tropical fruit; soft malty profile and yeasty esters.

T: More of the same, very balanced and somewhat in-distinct in the fruit flavors, though it is fairly juicy and fruity. Malt, hops, yeast, grassy dank bitterness, are all balanced.

MF: Creamy, smooth, soft hazy NEIPA body.

O: Decent, though nothing stands out.

Appearance is nice, very hazy with a deep orange color and a good retaining head. It's aroma isn't very distinct but I'm getting subtle notes of citrus and tropical fruits.

This beer is so balanced that nothing really stands out or grabs your attention. Indistinct tropical fruits and citrus in the front along with a soft malt body and slight bitterness on the finish. Mouthfeel is thin and smooth, goes down very easily. Medium bodied with a moderate amount of carbonation. It's a decent beer overall but it just lacks character or any distinct qualities.