Gavotte
Finback Brewery - Glendale

 

 

Cloudy amber-gold color. Four finger head which is very slow to recede. Plenty of random, 3D spots on the glass.

Lightly fruity upfront with a floral hop in the background.

The mango is stronger than the orange. Initially I thought there might be some hot peppers in the mix. Perhaps this is from an orange rind addition? The body leans rich while the carbonation is ample. The finish has a bite to it (hot peppers again?). The aftertaste is more bitter than the rest of the tasting.

 

 

Signature Finback. Like a number of their DIPAs, this beer has an orange creamsicle aroma and fruity taste without the hoppy edge. Very smooth DIPA. Dry hopped with Azacca and Citra.

 

 

Named after a *reads notes* French... dance(?), Gavotte is a double IPA hopped with Citra and Azacca, with both mango and orange added. That sounds fun but also potentially disastrous, although the inspired hop combination does give me some hope that it will be a great beer. We'll see.

The pour is a completely-opaque, juice-like orange color with a smoothie-adjacent appearance, though it's topped off with a characteristically "beer-like" head of thick foam that sinks quickly down to a quarter-finger ring, leaving behind some decent lace. Alright legs too, I suppose. Nothing too special here; it certainly looks... healthy? I'm not overly impressed, but I guess your mileage may vary if you're still impressed by beer that looks like a milkshake.

Overall very good initial impression on the nose, though. The balance is certainly here, and I do pick up both the orange and the mango with some slight notes of grassiness, spice, pine resin, passion fruit, and guava lingering about. Perhaps even some peach or something as well. Azacca can do some odd stuff, and I think it's at home in "fruited" IPAs and sour beers, anyway, so this was probably a pretty inspired hop choice. I'm happy with what's going on here, but it also doesn't seem like it really needs to be a huge-ass 8% beer either. Although, I will admit I'm such a stupid, easily-manipulated beer nerd (and enjoyer of alcohol) that if this had been 6% I probably would have turned my nose up at it, so... maybe I am the one who is a dumb person.

Flavor profile oscillates between good and mediocre, unfortunately, with an upfront hit of fun hoppy goodness ranging from grapefruit and orange rind to more tropical elements that feel right at home with the concept of a fruited IPA with a good hop combo to bolster it. However, the mid-palate gets really overly-grainy and a bit lost in general, and the finish has a distinct harshness to it that feels pretty tough to reconcile. I think the fruit additions probably don't really help a ton here, because I'm pretty sure some of these NEIPA-preferred yeast strains deal with fruit in a weird way. Remember Trillium's collaboration with Monkish, Never & Ever? I've never (& ever, sure... yawn) had it but I recall people being super upset with how much burn it had to it. This one feels odd, too, for sure. Heavy feel without much hop presence in the finish, so it just seems to sit on the tongue in a strange way and never becomes very satisfying.