Derivative: Citralaxy
Proclamation Ale Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm really happy to see Proclamation making it's way into Jersey. Being a New England ex-pat myself I had no choice to pick this up.

Poured from a 16oz can into a Spiegelau IPA glass. Derivative Citralaxy is a brilliant golden-orange color, thick with sediment to the point where it is completely turbid. Aroma is incredibly potent (you could smell it before you even went to take a sip), wave after wave of citrus and tropical fruits. Flavor is reminiscent of the aroma, just lots of mango, pineapple, grapefruits. No "green" abrasive hop bitterness you occasionally get from hazy pales of this style. Thick mouthfeel yet smooth and finishes dry.

Overall this is one of the best Pales Ales I've had in a while and that is a huge compliment because this is a style that is already overdone to death. The fact that it is distinguishable from a crowded style really speaks of its quality. Excellent job by Proclamation!

 

This is, I believe, my first brush with the Proclamation Derivative series, and it's a weird one. All of the others Derivatives have been single-hopped, but this one uses a specific combination of two hops (I assume they're both favorites of the brewers): Citra and Galaxy. Coincidentally, I love these two hops as well. How could I avoid picking this beer up?

Pours a paler-than-expected straw-yellow with an immense haze to it. Building up a rather voluminous head of foam topping off at about three fingers at its apex, Citralaxy is a surprisingly nice looking beer. I say "surprisingly" because this is just so pale and yellow. If it were filtered, this would probably look like a Budweiser product... there's no depth to the hue at all, and it's not even orange-tinted like a lot of NEIPAs. Straight pineapple juice appearance.

The nose has a lot of the rindlike citrus I expect from Citra hops along with a charge of pine-y grassiness and dank greenery from the Galaxy hops. I also get a blast of guava and mango with other miscellaneous tropical notes coming through. I almost get a bit of a "Nelson"-like gooseberry/white wine note, but it sort of fades into the background and is consumed by more tangerine and orange. Wow, this is a nice smelling brew. It actually leaps out of the glass unlike a lot of DDH pale ales I've had lately.

On the tongue, this is just downright creamy and delicious. The juicy flavors from the Citra hops combine perfectly with the more aggressive Galaxy hop varietal to bring out a lot of fresh-squeezed hop flavor ranging from mango to orange-creamsicle to pineapple and almost everything in between. For a non-smoothie IPA, this really has a creamy flavor and feel... the finish is almost vanilla-like in its light sweetness, which it marries with the citrus fruit aspects. Man, this is crushable, too... it drinks so nice and light but still has a good bit of crackery 2-row maltiness to it. Perfect carbonation as well. I would say the only thing is that it's not quite as clean as I'd like it to be. The finish gets a little bit muddled, but it tastes great so I won't take off any points for it. If you're in the mood for a supremely flavorful pale ale/IPA that combines the best of multiple worlds of modern hops, this is the brew for you. If the other Derivatives are even close to this good, I'll have to pay more attention to them!

 

Big tropical fruit and dank citrus aroma, notes of mango, pineapple, lychee, orange, grapefruit, passionfruit, guava, some dank floral resinous earthy herbal grassy pine, with some caramelized crackery malt.