Whale Watching
Finback Brewery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoyed by fire with John, 5/14/22

 

 

This cloudy orange can pour hosts a 1 cm white foam cap and an aroma of orange blossoms and strawberries.
The flavor is full and tropical. Mango, pineapple and banana are prominent. Th hop bitterness is low.
The mouthfeel is very smooth and rich.
This has high flavor and some fruity sweetness.

Poured from a can (4/3) into a Finback glass (proper glassware/I have no idea what the shape of this glass is)

L: dirty dark orange, slight white head that faded after a minute or so. Nice white lacing

S: really great, rich and deep tropical nose here. Get lots of citrus (grapefruit, orange, lemon/lime, tangerine) and melon upfront with a creamier/danker second layer full of more papaya/pineapple/mango/passionfruit. Maybe some banana, coconut? Very inviting

T: decent follow-through from the nose, citrus leading the way (and offering some nice bite) on a creamy and rich tropical fruit base. Would say there is more bite than I expected, but by no means in a bad way. Maybe some slight abv warming, but I may also be drinking it with some accidental haste - really easy to keep sipping!

F: medium carbonation and body, very smooth

O: the more I drink this the more impressed I am. Nose is great and the taste follows through while adding some nice citrus/hop bite to a very smooth beer. Want to wrap up this review so I can get back to drinking the beer, so happy these guys are now open a quick walk away

Can. Exorbitant amount for the four pack. Pours a dull, concentrated orange. Haze meter: 8/10. Nice, fluffy head. Strong aroma. Tropical smoothie and some really green hops. Pungent flavor as well. A bit too heavy on the hop burn aftertaste. More coarse than soft and fruity. Derivative flavor and aroma, like almost all beers of the style (flavor spectrum and constraints dictate this somewhat) but this is a well done, albeit stupidly expensive offering.

poured into a pint glass via can

color is a lemony yellow with off white foam

smell is a nice mix of the hops used making it smell like collage of sweet citrus fruits

taste follows the nose with a creaminess added to the sweet tangerine, orange and pineapple flavors

carbonation is medium, and the mouthfeel is on point

a fantastic DIPA!

This seems like a veritable "who's who" of IPA hop varietals crammed into one lean, mean 8.5% ABV hazy double dry-hopped beer machine, so without much ado, let's jump right into Whale Watching. For the record, this can is dated 4/3/20, making this beer 12 days old as of this review.

The pour is a little deeper in hue than many recent Finback pale ales I've had, carrying somewhat of a golden-orange lean and a bit less pallid yellow throughout its opaque body. The head is a steady and solid collar of bone-white foam with nice legs and a bit of decent lace show, though I'm surprised it doesn't really build up much past a half-finger even with an aggressive pour.

This absolutely comes with a no-holds-barred approach to hops that utterly jumps out of the can; a big wallop of dank and sticky resinous notes followed by some tangerine, intense grapefruit, and bright, burly tropical fruit all blaze a trail of destruction upon my senses as soon as I lift the glass to my nose; wow, guys. This is saturated. Waaaay saturated. Boasting five of the highest-rated hop varietals in recent times all in one beer, WW really pushes the envelope of what Finback can do in the realm of the DDH DIPA.

On the tongue, there is a good balance struck, somehow, between some candied citrus and tropical-forward hoppiness with dank and resinous, almost earthy tones coming to the fore as well. Mosaic and 007 are known for their pushes of waves upon waves of tropical elements, sure, but the mango and pineapple here are well-developed and placed alongside some grassy and tannic notes along with a deep undercurrent of raspberry. Galaxy, of course, pushes out dense layers of passion fruit and papaya, but there is also a tang here that hooks my palate. Citra and Nelson feel like assistant players in the mix, especially with the other heavy hitters, but they definitely bring some cattiness and more subtle citrus and spice flavors to the beer. Overall, it's pretty incredible how Finback has managed to squeeze out everything good about each of these hops to put into this beer, yet they are also all allowed to work well together in a space where they should fight for the stage. This is probably one of my favorites from this brewery in a good while. It's rich and decadent, with a creamy feel and, yet, with a lively enough carbonation that it always seems to be coming from a different angle with each sip. Truly great stuff. Pick it up to see what Finback can really do. They've been good lately but this is next-level.