Selfie Destruct
Southern Prohibition Brewing

 

Currently #7 on the Top Louisiana Beers list.

CAN: Ran me $4.59 USD plus tax at Freret Beer Annex for the single. No best before date appears on the 16 fl oz pull-tab can. Fun label art shows a skeleton taking a photo of itself with a mobile.

6.6% ABV. "Double Dry-Hopped American IPA."

HEAD: Fills most of my glass despite a slow side-pour indicating high carbonation. ~10cm in height. Off-white colour. Fluffy and airy. Not as frothy or creamy as would be ideal (to pick a nit). Looks soft, which is nice, and clings to the glass well, leaving wisps of lacing as it recedes over ~8 minutes.

BODY: Murky copper of poor vibrance. Definitely a dull body that seems to be going for hazy but ends up looking lifeless and sad.

Appears overcarbonated.

AROMA: Mandarin orange is the most obvious note, followed by lychee. Tangerine, citrus rind-like bitterness, orange creamsicle, pale malt, flaked wheat. No oxidized notes as the brewer admitted were present in some cans of this during one release window (http://soprobrewing.com/soprosaid).

The hop profile seems nice and balanced, though it definitely lacks the freshness and vivacity of aroma you'd expect in a great IPA. I'm looking forward to trying it, but this aroma suggests a somewhat stale IPA with a reticent hop profile that isn't horribly evocative of the fruit notes its hop varietals were chosen for.

Aromatic intensity is average.

TASTE & TEXTURE: Not as pulpy or thick as I feared it might be, but acidic and soft which accentuates its lychee and Mandarin orange-dominant flavours. Carbonation is near perfect. Smooth, wet, medium-bodied, very approachable.

Finishes on a big note of lychee/lychee syrup, which really works for it in combination with its silky coating mouthfeel. The acidity touches off the more subtle notes of fruit rind (with a twinge of bitterness emanating therefrom) and tangerine flesh in addition to catering to the Mandarin orange note this beer is rife with.

OVERALL: Its hop profile isn't what I'd normally want in an IPA and it doesn't have the freshness or depth of hop flavour a great IPA would certainly have, but judging it as a sort of new world extra pale ale, it works well enough. Not well enough to convince me its worth over $5 a can all-in when Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is a better beer available in sixers for less than double that (i.e. less than 1/3rd the cost of this), however.

Those after a Mandarin orange/lychee-emphatic pale ale will do well to seek this out, but most discerning drinkers will find it an agreeable but not standout beer worth trying once. Hardly a top tier IPA amongst the myriad expressions of the style crowding the U.S. market, and not a beer I'd buy again even if it was sold at a fair price.

C+ / ABOVE AVERAGE

***
02/20/21 so I bought a 4-pack of this not realizing I'd reviewed it before...cost me $15.99 USD too. Shit! Let's give it a second chance...

Canned less than two weeks ago (02/07/21). According to the brewery's social media, this is brewed with oats and in this 2021 batch "the new dry hop plays off the old and captures more pineapple and melon notes."

Aroma is fragrant enough, promising tropical fruit, melon, lychee, Mandarin orange juice, muted pineapple, and minimally present malts (wheat, 2-row). No oat aromatics, no pine, no grapefruit, no herbal or grassy hop aromatics. Seems like a vaguely tropical slightly juicy IPA with minimal bitterness.

Texture is soft, silky, and juicy with a bit of pulpy thickness and a coating mouthfeel. Medium-bodied with oats filling it out a bit.

Taste isn't strong, but I do get vague tropical fruit, fruit juice, and muted melon. It's pretty subdued, tasting more like a juicy pale wheat ale or something...this lacks the hop pungency and intensity of hop flavour one would want in a good IPA.

I think it's quite drinkable, but I think they're calling it an IPA more for marketing than anything else; it's a 6.6% ABV ale brewed with wheat and oats and it has very limited hop pungency/depth of hop flavour...let's call it a pale ale at best. I don't think it's worth $4 USD a can, but price aside it's an enjoyable easy drinking pale ale that will satiate those after a mellow juicy brew but will disappoint those interested in a beer that showcases its hop varietals to their utmost. Not SoPro's strongest work, but I might (knowingly) buy it again if it were $11/sixer. I think my last review of this must have been of a can that was old, but I put that on the brewers for not using date stamps.

C+ / ABOVE AVERAGE

Very thick and hazy. Sweet and fruity. Very fresh taste.

 

 

 

 

 

A little dank, a little stank, and really, really good.

Sipped from a tulip at Craft Brewed in Nashville. Pure juice pour with a full haze, orange-yellow body. Minimal off-white head but lots or carbonation and nice, soft lacing down the glass. Quite attractive.

Herbal, dank greens are the first hit in the nose. Melon, citrus, cracker yeast, and a little tropical fruit. There’s some green onion and a wee (pun intended) bit of cat pee in the mix. Some berries and a little pine. Very bright in between the dank and stank. And very green, but in a good way.

Taste almost surpasses the excellent aromas, with the herbal greeness just being a bit too raw and stealing a hair from the drinking experience. But otherwise the flavor profile is really outstanding, with all of the notes in the nose coming through on the tongue. Overripe citrus and tropical fruit, pithy grapefruit rind mashed together with sugared grapefruit meat, fresh cut grass and pine sap, sweet biscuit dough, a big dose of green grape, and an added berry element that adds to the fruit salad effect. Damn good stuff. Just wish the greenness was turned down a hair. Finishes bitter and a little starchy, in keeping with the green characteristics.

Feel is light but soft and very well carbonated.

Follow-up on 2/13/19 with an at-home, 5-week-old can experience... Much more impressive head when I control the pour, with remarkable retention and really fantastic lacing. Smell and flavors were much more subdued, so I get the feeling that this beer is best ultra-fresh (3 weeks or less) and starts to fall off pretty hard. Still a really good discovery, however.

 

 

 

 

 

Canned 06/27/18. First SoPro haze since they fixed their oxidation problem. Pretty stoked!

The pour is a beautiful hazy gold, with a creamy white head of foam that leaves a nice even frothy ring around the top of the glass.

The nose is fairly mild, but zesty grapefruit melds with a present tropical fruit on the nose. The fruit ripens in aroma as the beer warms.

A great balance of pithy hops and overripe mango compliment each other perfectly in the flavor profile. The bitter grapefruit returns, bringing out those nice bitter hops further, and create a subtly complex hazy IPA. Very tasty.

Juicy, smooth, and with a medium carbonation that compliments a nice subtle spice in the finish.

Hazy but not opaque. Light easily passes through this double dry hopped IPA, and the thick cap of foam leaves lacing as the level in the glass slowly decreases. Aromas of sweet pound cake, lemon meringue, fresh cut pineapple, juicy nectarines, and a whisper of white pine as the beer warms. Medium to full bodied and smooth on the palate. Selfie Destruct delivers soft, fruity flavors up front with a moderate degree of bitterness that lingers into the finish. Not quite New England in its taste or appearance, this beer nonetheless walks the line successfully and should appeal to IPA purists and new school enthusiasts, too. Fun, flavorful, and another solid showing from Southern Prohibition.