Southern Migration
Finback Brewery - Glendale

16 oz. can. Mostly clear yellow body. Medium white head. Guava aroma right up front. Popcorn malt. And then a garlicky hop bite. Tastes of hops up front. Citrus with a garlic bite, very mosaic-tasting. Guava permeates behind it. Subtle fruit, but nice. Medium light body. Medium carbonation. Enjoyable. The malt presence is barely there and the hops and fruit are just enough.

 

 

 

Picked this up at Finback a while ago and finally got around to it tonight, as I'm attempting to get to all of their beers that I've had in my stash. I like Finback quite a bit as the space, location, and staff have been great to me but my only issue with this beer is that along with several others that I've had from them, this one had too much sediment in it. The canning date was from 7/12 and had "Jupiter" written above it but for being less than 3 months old, I would expect this to hold up just a bit better!

Aside from that, there wasn't much to this beer that dissuaded me. The pour was alright as the liquid was a dank melon with quite a bit of the aforementioned sediment in it with a *ton* of it at the bottom of my pint glass. This even had a bit of off-green color to it as the head wasn't that thick nor long-lasting. Quite a mellow nose to it as well as there were faint hints of guava, tropical notes, and yeast. Some juicy orange and papaya in the taste with a garlic undertone to this, which made for a unique take on an American IPA not seen in any beer in quite some time. The aftertaste had a bit of melon rind it as the carbonation was moderate and the mouthfeel was a bit light at the same time.

Not a lot of booze here but I could feel a slight buzz when I finally finished this off. While not a bad IPA, this was a bit odd in it's look and taste but not enough to turn me off. Guava is not something that I'm accustomed to and if I was, I'd probably be better able to pinpoint this. As it was , I didn’t dislike the taste but wish that it held up better over time. Worth a go once just to have something outside of the expected norm.

 

 

Cloudy pale yellow beer with a finger of ivory head. Can-emptying pour deposited an unexpected load of thick white sediment into the beer - looked like heavy snow fall in a snow globe with accumulations of 1-2 cm in the bottom of my pint. I'm not necessarily averse to sediment, but I appreciate a heads up when dealing with a canned IPA. It definitely detracted from my enjoyment.
Aromas were fruity and mild, vaguely tropical, with citrusy highlights. Flavors matched the citrus and tropical profile, along with a clean grain bill and some edges of a more herbal/medicinal character. Light and smooth, ample carbonation, clean-finishing.

 

 

 

 

Poured from a 16oz can into a can glass:

Appearance: pours a hazy, hazy, yellow color, with a quickly dissipating white head. Leaves next to no lacing. The body is a unique color for a beer....yellow, but there's a touch of greenish hue to it. Odd, but it could just be the lighting.

Aroma: I'm not going to claim I know what guava smells like, but I'm sure it has some of that in there. Smells fruity, tropical, and delicious.

Taste: again, I don't know much about guava, but I'm sure some of the tropical fruit character I get is from that. There is a very mild buttery taste here, and I'm glad it didn't permeate too much. The beers very, very good, with some nice hoppy, fruity notes, along with a bit of candied lemon and the extremely mild butter doesn't overwhelm.

Feel: crisp, with a dryish finish, and moderate to high carbonation. Compliments the hop bill nicely.

Overall: this is a solid IPA. There was something slightly off that I can't quite put my finger on, but overall, it tasted nice.

 

This beer pours a super cloudy, murky light yellow very reminiscent of white grapefruit juice, with lots of sediment that sinks to the bottom of the glass very quickly. There is a one finger fizzy white head that dissipates to nothing very quickly. There is sparse spotted lacing as well.

Smell is lemon, guava, and grapefruit. Taste is the same with the guava being the star of the show.

Feel is super light, juicy and crisp. Not sure what the abv is, but it is super crushable.

Overall a very nice beer. I wish the smell offered a little more and the taste was less one dimensional, but this is a very refreshing beer, flavorful and easy to drink.

With the whole can in the glass, the beer comes in a bright greenish straw, with tons of chunks similar to powdered Parmesan cheese.

The aroma offers sticky sweet guava, pineapple juice, hint of tart tropical guava.

The flavor follows with a watered down pineapple juice type flavor, tons of guava, juicy tangelo, a hint of tart from that as well, candied guava candy, a bit of bready malt to support the beer, but ever so gentle, onto a medium bitterness of citrus peel.

 

16oz. can into OEC stemware.

Nose is citrus, lemon, pine and grass. Pretty mellow though I'm not sure if I'm confusing the guava with lemon. Guava is actually pretty pronounced on the palate. A light and sweet tartness with citrus accents and a rind-like bitterness. Some pine and sap round out the hop presence. The feel of this beer is probably the best aspect of it. Light to medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Smooth and quenching in the mouth and just drinks very easy.

Nice, but not one of Finback's better offerings. Worth trying and a really good lawn-mowing/beach going beer but that's about it.