Surroundings
Finback Brewery - Glendale
- From:
- Finback Brewery - Glendale
- New York, United States
- Style:
- American IPA
- ABV:
- 5.5%
- Score:
- +4 ratings needed
- Avg:
- 3.97 | pDev: 4.28%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 1
- Status:
- Inactive
- Rated:
- Mar 26, 2021
- Added:
- Jan 08, 2021
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 0
NO SCORE
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No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Reviewed by ichorNet from Massachusetts
4.09/5 rDev +3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
4.09/5 rDev +3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
I am definitely always a fan of being the first to review a Finback IPA, especially when it's exciting like this one! Surroundings was canned 12/28/20, making it about a week-and-a-half old, and was dry-hopped with Lemondrop, Sultana, and El Dorado. Now THAT is a hop lineup! It honestly feels like I haven't seen Lemondrop used in a beer in years, so it'll be cool to see how it works with one of the cooler new varietals (Sultana) and a stand-by hop that I think has potential but tends to be misused more often than not (El Dorado).
The pour here is somewhat in the realm of "normal" for Finback, but almost objectively worse than a lot of their IPAs upon closer inspection; a super-hazy/opaque yellow/light-orange hued liquid building up with a huge head that retains rather poorly, eventually sinking down to pretty much nothing save a tiny sliver of foam. No lace, no legs, no surface coverage. Wonder what happened here. It's not awful, but it's definitely not in the upper echelon of Finback beers in terms of first impressions.
The first sniff I take does quell some of my fears, however. Lemondrop comes forward big time here with an unusual combination of melon, light tannins/tea-like notes, and grapefruit with a hint of Meyer lemon and grassiness. Sultana brings forward a bit of pineapple and papaya with some sweeter elements coming forward as well. More grassiness and herbal components. Very tea-like. Intriguing for sure!
Tea is definitely an adequate descriptor for a lot of what seems to come across on the palate, as well, honestly. It has a round, almost honeyed overtone with a ton of unusual grassiness and herbal aspects coming to the fore. Heavy body with some florals and flavors of bitter/tart citrus peel (Bergamot orange, pomelo, and white grapefruit) coming through in the finish. Soft and unusually dense feel for a lower-ABV hoppy beer from this brewery, I will say. This is definitely a weird one, and not everyone is going to appreciate or enjoy it, but I think I like what they went for here. It's super tea-like and herbal/grassy with consistent references to citrus, which gives me an "Earl Grey" vibe almost automatically. I don't think this is one of the very best Finback IPAs, but it's certainly pretty unusual, and for that it deserves some points.
Jan 08, 2021The pour here is somewhat in the realm of "normal" for Finback, but almost objectively worse than a lot of their IPAs upon closer inspection; a super-hazy/opaque yellow/light-orange hued liquid building up with a huge head that retains rather poorly, eventually sinking down to pretty much nothing save a tiny sliver of foam. No lace, no legs, no surface coverage. Wonder what happened here. It's not awful, but it's definitely not in the upper echelon of Finback beers in terms of first impressions.
The first sniff I take does quell some of my fears, however. Lemondrop comes forward big time here with an unusual combination of melon, light tannins/tea-like notes, and grapefruit with a hint of Meyer lemon and grassiness. Sultana brings forward a bit of pineapple and papaya with some sweeter elements coming forward as well. More grassiness and herbal components. Very tea-like. Intriguing for sure!
Tea is definitely an adequate descriptor for a lot of what seems to come across on the palate, as well, honestly. It has a round, almost honeyed overtone with a ton of unusual grassiness and herbal aspects coming to the fore. Heavy body with some florals and flavors of bitter/tart citrus peel (Bergamot orange, pomelo, and white grapefruit) coming through in the finish. Soft and unusually dense feel for a lower-ABV hoppy beer from this brewery, I will say. This is definitely a weird one, and not everyone is going to appreciate or enjoy it, but I think I like what they went for here. It's super tea-like and herbal/grassy with consistent references to citrus, which gives me an "Earl Grey" vibe almost automatically. I don't think this is one of the very best Finback IPAs, but it's certainly pretty unusual, and for that it deserves some points.
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