Reckless Abandon Belgian Double IPA
Abandon Brewing Co.

 

Dank and tasty!

Had it on tap today. Went into it without any preconceived notions; just "pour me that one." Well, I get all styles of beer, and can live with imperfection here or there. This beer bothered me. I found it to be harsh, and not in the hop sense of harsh. I am fine with hop harshness, so, a near drain pourer. I didn't give it back as not to insult the pub from which it came. I finished it, wincing all the way. Tasted kind of like someone dumped concentrated wet cardboard and mustard in my beer. Guh!

 

This brew was served on draught at Acme’s Bar and Pizza in Rochester, New York. It arrived in a pair of generic but fat, curved snifters, showing a slippery burnt apricot coloring. A fractured wisp of a white head was produced on the pour, but this faded as quick as it came to be. Wet, dripping globs of lacing were left in its wake, and reproduced on vigorous swirls of the glass. The aroma comes together into a cohesive unit, formed from punches of dirty, bittering grassy, floral, and earthen hop leafiness, toasted amber and biting caramel malt, tannic lemon tea, bright phenolic cloves and plastics, nutmeg and black pepper spiciness, harsh ethanol airs, pulpy orange flesh and rind, buttered whole wheat English muffins, sugary cereal grain filler, molded potpourri, chocolate candy corns, synthetic black cherry fruitiness, and metallic but savory Belgian yeastiness. The taste to follow was very, very bitter, stemming primarily from a toasted, musky, barnyardy amber and Belgian barley grainy grittiness. Otherwise getting mashed behind this arrowhead are notes of heavy Magic Marker phenols, minimally sweet banana bread esters, heavily grassy and resinous floral hoppiness, synthetic lemon cleaner, dried lemon rind, white flour, nutmeg, burnt candle wick, wet cork, buttercream, and burnt brown rice. The body was full, and the carbonation was lightly medium. Each sip gave contributory slurp, smack, cream, and froth, but the nicest thing about the feel was its heavy, far-reaching coating. This aided in allowing you to more slowly acclimate to the intensity of the beer’s bitterness. The abv was appropriate, and the beer disappeared as a slower sipper might.

Overall, while this isn’t our new favorite beer from Abandon, we consider it to be a success stylistically. It got around to each necessary aspect, hitting the bright, syrupy hoppiness hard from the beginning, and moving through to include bittering, dank phenols. I think the problem that we ran into here was that they pushed it to make a novel “Belgian Double IPA” and overshot their target. While the hops add a small degree of sweetness they, too, add in big ways to the bitter side of the basket. This combined synergistically with the phenols for a final product that was just over the top bitter.

 

Very nice farmhouse/saison style DIPA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

poured from a growler filled at the brewery yesterday.

appears a hazy opaque dark golden orange color, with bright white head. strong mixed hop aroma, part citrus rind, part herbal, almost basil. very pleasant. taste is well balance. light malt flavor - sweet with honey notes, finishes dominated by the same mix of hop flavor. not bitter, just bold hops. no booziness. lower carbonation, full mouthfeel that coats the mouth. so smooth. drinks remarkably easy.

of all the great beers drank at Abandon, this was the highlight for me.