Laid Back
Other Half Brewing - Center Street

Cloudy yellow. Thin, white head. Peach, bubblegum, and melon in the aroma. Sour-sweet, fruity taste with light bitterness. Not bad, but peach feels out of place.

 

 

Tonight is a new beer to me.

Other Half – Laid Back

6.0 %ABV

The beer is listed as a “sour peach IPA brewed with oats, wheat, lactose, peaches and Vanilla. Hopped with Citra, Galaxy and Motueka.”

Canned-on date of 8-25-2021. This was picked up from Cerebral Brewing on 9/10/2021 (by my sister, whom I am very grateful to). She was told that this was a collab, and I know they only started carrying it at the brewery within the last day or so, but no where can I find that it is actually a collab, and Cerebral’s own website indicates that this is a “guest beer.”

The beer was removed from a 45ish degree temp fridge after having been refrigerated for approximately 5 hours. Beer poured into a 16oz willi belcher glass. Beer consumed while writing review, and review written on/off over a 40-minute period to give the beer a proper chance as it is fully consumed.

First Impression: Often when I first open an IPA, you immediately get some type of hop aroma pouring up. I didn’t get that – could just be the night, or could be the style. It pours beautifully – soft, lucious, and a color consistent with photos I saw online.

Appearance: Beautiful. This is pretty much what I always think a NE style IPA should look like, although this isn’t a NE IPA. A mix of yellow-orange with a punch towards orange. Very turbid. Limited head when poured carefully. (I rarely pour aggressively, but I will for some styles and if the glass is plenty large or if the beer is a cellared stout. I did not pour aggressively, but many other IPAs I have poured similarly have resulted in much more head. I’m not knocking it for less head, just an observation.) Head dissipated quickly with effectively no lacing. 4.5

Smell: This beer is not extremely aromatic, and to be honest that is real disappointing, as I wish there was a very aromatic presence to compliment the wonderful flavor. What I do smell is essentially a very muted IPA with “sweet scents” that are non-descript, but clearly sweet in character. 3.5

Taste: I don't think that I have as good of a palate as perhaps some on BA. I struggle to identify individual flavors. Also: To be honest, I'm not sure what the style should be – it seems like it should be classified as a Milkshake IPA, but I’ve never had the style to really compare, and from my perspective it is a wonderful IPA with subtle additions that make it stand out. -BUT, I thought that milkshake IPA flavors were supposed to be a bit over the top, almost like adjunct flavors in pastry stouts. The peach and vanilla are extremely subtle – but in the most pleasant of ways. One reason that I have often shied away from wanting to try this style is because I was worried that it wouldn’t taste like an IPA. For this beer – that’s not even close to the case. It tastes just like a soft, NE IPA but with the subtle bump of (faintly) sour peach with a hint of vanilla (but if you don’t focus on the flavor, you’d probably not notice the vanilla at all, although I’m sure it’s presence is still very important.)

There are no hard edges. There's no hop bite (up front, or lasting). There's no bitterness to give me palate fatigue. There's no series of 9 flavors that punch me in the mouth; instead, it's like a cuvee; a perfect mixture blended beautifully, artfully together.

There's no real aftertaste - and for me, that's actually a win. Too frequently with IPAs I'm left with this sort of semi-dry, bitter, green, grassy, piney aftertaste that won't go away. All that remains on my palate is minimal, - a slightly sour, almost hint of lemon with a lightly hop flavor. The peach and vanilla were more prevalent as it warmed. Brilliant.

This really is the perfect level of bitterness to me. Trying to rate to style, but I'm sure my bias is influencing the rating. 4.80

Mouthfeel: I think the mouthfeel is great, and it’s definitely as pillowy as perhaps any NE IPA I’ve had. I do understand that milkshake IPAs are meant to be pillowy, and I’m not sure how this qualifies against the best, but from my experience this is way up there. All other mouthfeel-related characteristics are on point. 4.75

Overall: This is great. I'm really loving this. If this was local for me, I'd be the guy grabbing a 4-pack every week, even though IPAs are not typically my bag. But man, this is just fantastic to me. If all “good” milkshake IPAs are this good, I’m down to not only try more, but they might just convert me to more of a hop head. This beer is so easy drinking, and for me the ABV is so perfect, I could easily drink 2 of these on a regular night, and 3 at a party without it being a problem. I mean, man is this good. 4.80

BA Review Score: 4.47

Tasted in a plastic cup from draft at Phase Three Brewing on September 3, 2021.

From a 16oz can, dated 08/25/21. Served in a willi becher.

Pours an opaque orange, like a glass of orange juice, with a scant half-finger of soft, fizzy head. Retention is unremarkable, leaving a barely rousable thin, slippery sheet of lacing.

Really interesting nose, smells like a freshly opened package of copy paper and like fresh, spicy sweat. That’s probably totally wrong but I don’t know how else to describe it.

I was expecting sour but there’s nothing sour happening here - it tastes straight up like melted ice cream. Like copy paper flavored melted vanilla ice cream. And a little watery, like someone poured a glass of ice water into the melted copy paper flavored ice cream.

Mouthfeel is somehow both watery and creamy at the same time. There’s a little fine, prickly carbonation, but not enough to save it from itself.

Overall, wtf was that?! It wasn’t sour and, as best I could tell, there were no peaches. So, give me credit, I drank the whole can. But I’m not remotely tempted to open another.

 

 

16oz. can into a Brooklyn Brewery snifter.

Looks like mango juice. Muddy, almost pulpy. Nose is lightly tart peach mixed with soap and a light foaminess. Pretty mellow. Beer opens mango and soap. Floral, citrus and mango and peach juice. Tart peach with an aggressive bite. Foamy with some cobwebs at the finish. This is just odd. Not sour and not an IPA.... and not a good combination either. Body is light with ample carbonation. Prickly and lively on the palate and goes down crisp, aggressive, and foamy. Clean aftertaste.

Just not a great beer. The flavors don't work well together at all.

Laid Back happens to be one of my favorite songs from Hot Chip and it represents the hip Brooklyn that I've come to love in an odd way and somehow, that's how this beer was for me as well. No, it wasn't like Other Half's more well-known IPA's but it was just as nicely crafted and enjoyable while holding the alcohol in check at the same time. It even felt more like something from Hudson Valley or Tilted Barn than their hazier offerings but in the end, it was something that I came to expect from these guys!

Canned on 2/14/19 (show some love!) with "TEAM VITO" written underneath that, this poured a juicy peach with a bit of pebbled, white sediment swirling low in it. That was my fault, and not Other Half's, because of this brew's age and how long it took for me to get around to it. Loads of peach, oats, tangerine, and cream in the nose as this was quite tangy and sharp with plenty of smoothness from the wheat and lactose to smooth this out. Sugar, fruit ripeness, and red grapefruit combined with a wonderful outdoorsy feel that was floral, natural, and slick at the same time with plenty of sourness tying everything in together throughout.

A light carbonation and a relatively full body for this style allowed this range of flavors to fully emerge. I thought of this as much a Sweet & Sour beer as it was an IPA as this almost deserved to be placed in a category of it's own. Had it been a bit more toned down and hoppy, it would have been truly wonderful. As it was, this was a fun beer that in the end, was as laid back as it's moniker and label...

 

 

 

 

There’s never a dull moment in craft beer so when the brewers of Other Half get to work on an IPA, they haze it up, lace it with peaches and then sour it. Because anything else would be easy.

So Laid Back is anything but, pouring with a turbid golden matte finish and building a rich lathery foam. Tangy and succulent aromas abound as the nose is rife with tropical fruit, citrus and orchard fruit. Hints of herbal grassiness ensues along with a cereal sweet scent. Rich and creamy early like angel food cake, a notion of pastry, cereal and agave sweetness round out the grain profile.

But as the ale rolls along the middle palate, its fruit forward demeanor trends citrusy with an abundant taste of red grapefruit. As tangerine, mango, apricot and nectarine rise and fall, its the peaches that carry a certainly bellini character that veers from the sweetest and most succulent taste of grapefruit juice. A bitter and sour interplay only amplifies the taste of grapefruit in a radiant, juicy finish.

Mediu bodied and bittersweet, the beer’s texture is both creamy with wheat and drying with spicy hop resins that gives the session a great sense of refreshment and drinkability. A medium length after tow of leafy hops link up with the sourness for a tangy, relaxed taste.

 

 

Amazing taste of sweet peaches with almost no sourness. Good hop follow but not to strong and bitter. Extremely refreshing beer and super easy to drink.

 

L - 1-finger bright white head atop a cloudy yellow body.

S - peaches, floral incense, brown sugar, a touch of herb, liquid cleaner.

T - lots of peaches up front, mixed with brown sugar. Artificial peach gummy candy, salt, oranges, biscuit. Very light tartness and almost no sourness. No bitterness, moderate-low sweetness, no booziness.

F - medium-light body with average carb.

O - refreshing, but the real peach gets overwhelmed by an artificial peach flavor mid-palate.