Yellow Cake
Finback Brewery - Glendale

usually i am dubious about these vanilla ipa beers, not that certain hops and certain vanilla cant be compatible, they certainly can, but its that ipa with vanilla is rarely a combination for something compelling and drinkable beyond the novelty level in practice, but this one is pretty good, leave it to finback right? lemon is a neat touch and its the most forward element of this, in front of both hops and vanilla, and i think that makes sense, its fresh and not acidic at all, even slightly sweet with the milk sugar in this, but pretty natural to me, essential oily but not perfumed or overdone. i also think the grain base is good, its not particularly pretty beer, a little dull, dense, washed out, nice head on it, starchy looking and feeling, but with some neat earthy character that grounds this and also keeps it beery for me, like its not just dessert, which is part of its success fundamentally i think, actually dry overall despite the lactose too, unexpectedly not that sugary, at least in how it presents. also, dont know if i ever really thought of yellow cake as being lemon flavored, but thats i guess not really relevant. the vanilla and the lactose give this a lemon custard element, cream it up some, work so well with the malt, and seem restrained to me. the hops are very well selected to marry in with these other elements, and frankly it does have some bitterness to it as well, so it still drinks like ipa. the bitterness does class a little bit with the vanilla but its cool with the lemon, like the pith part. hops have complimentary honeydew melon and sauternes type notes, could be southern hemisphere, some meyer lemon of its own, kiwi fruit, some oils, not overly intense, also quite good with the pale and even raw characteristics of the grain base. i get a little yeast too, more as it warms up some. lemon meringue almost more than cake to me, but lemon confection for sure. i cant drink a ton of this, its got a lot of body and is a little tiring on the palate, but its a whole lot better than the vast majority of beers in this space, of which i think there are entirely too many. imagine hearing in 2010 or something that milkshake ipa would be that it is now! anyway, this is creamy and smooth and interesting the entire glass. thanks to my brother for scoring and sharing this, along with a mess of other finback cans, always special to get to drink their stuff, and to drink beers with him! modern but not gimmicky. nice.

Poured an icy tall head, not much on the nose, but a feint presence of vanilla and sweetness.
The taste backing it up reminded me of the past and also brought me into the future.
The feel after, is a significant presence.

 

 

 

A: Th beer is very hazy to cloudy whitish yellow in color. It poured with a quarter finger high white head that left a narrow collar around the edge of the glass.
S: Light to moderate aromas of lemon and vanilla are present in the nose.
T: The taste has flavors of vanilla along with notes of lemon and a light amount of bitterness.
M: It feels medium-bodied, smooth and a bit crisp on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This makes for a nice dessert IPA and has pleasant aromas and flavors of lemon and vanilla.

Serving type: can

 

 

 

 

Pours a hazy medium yellow color, ample foamy head. Strong aroma of lemon and alcohol. Flavor is sweet, creamy lemon and vanilla, delicious. Nailed the yellow cake flavor. Medium bodied, carbonation is appropriate. Overall a delicious milkshake ipa, not my fav style, but thus is awesome! Can’t wait to buy it again.

6/17/20
16 oz can dated 5/5/20
4.5 rating

 

Guess this is a re-brew of an oddly-specific beer from last year, though I'm uncertain as to whether or not the original was also done in collaboration with Crooked Run Brewing. Yellow Cake is a lemon cake-inspired IPA, kind of drawing some elements from the "milkshake" IPA realm.

The beer pours a gorgeous yellow-golden color with a good amount of protein-driven haze that lands the beer pretty well into the opaque realm, and the body is topped off by a moderate, retentive head of eggshell-white foam that lasts for pretty much the entirety of the session. Lacing is solid; pretty much what I expected from this brew, with nice legs to boot. Overall, somewhat normal looking but the color, especially when compared to the label art, is quite nice.

The nose is incredibly well-constructed; it's even more on-point than I expected from Finback, and that's saying something because this is the same brewery that's made Fireball whiskey sours into a beer with only cinnamon and ingenuity. Literally smells exactly like pound cake with a light touch of lemon added. Liquid cake! The vanilla and lactose additions are likely to add a ton of body to the proceedings, but I really like what is happening here so far. It's got a genuine element to the approach here that I don't find in a lot of "milkshake IPA" type beers.

On the tongue is where the slightly more "IPA"-like notes come out. Lemon and herbal, floral undertones creep out as I sip on this one, with the early palate kind of biasing itself towards citrus and grassy notes which make way for sweeter aspects in the middle of each gulp. Still tangy and almost minty, the mid-palate picks up on the maltiness and tends towards a heavier feel that finishes rather dense and chewy. This has a nice bitterness in the finish that feels driven by the lemon addition, though, which gives this a slightly-less hefty overall feeling than some lactose/vanilla IPAs I've had. Overall, I really enjoyed this one. It's probably not something I'd want all the time, and I still do feel like I don't quite have the taste for "dessert IPAs," but this one comes closer than many others to being an awesome effort.

 

 

 

 

 

Yellow cake sweetness, vanilla cream icing, lemon, reminiscent of a limoncello cake, some tropical citrusy dank hops, very floral, pineapple, some earthy notes