Above The Sea
Finback Brewery - Glendale

 

 

Rad, another new Finback DIPA, this time with another cool collection of hops to chew on and see what they amount to in concert. This was canned 3/12/21 and was dry-hopped with Galaxy, Mosaic Cryo, Citra, and Waimea hops. Sounds fun and intense enough for me, let's hope Finback did a good job with it.

Speaking of intensity, the pour here was downright nuts. Of course, it's an extremely opaque beer, hazy like very few others can make, and featuring a huge head of bone-white foam that quickly settles and bubbles away to a small ring on the surface, which is mostly covered by sudsy bubbles. The lace show here is quite nice and consistent, with sheets forming as the aforementioned head recedes. Overall, it's a great looking hazyboi, like most of the stuff Finback makes in this style.

The nose is ripe grapefruit with cantaloupe, mango, and guava picking up at times, while notes of wildflowers, herbals, and a super-sticky dankness kick around in the background. Oh, also, this absolutely smells like a 9% IPA, so you can tell it's high-octane stuff. It's not kidding around, and that much is apparent by just how much it smacks you in the face with ethanol alongside the other elements I just mentioned. It almost has a "Strata"-like nose in terms of just how catty, oily, dank, and intense it is. Yeah, good stuff.

First sip is a bit maltier than I expected, but I don't mind much considering the really nice, almost "triple IPA" flavors that come with such territory. Waimea is one of those NZ hops I always have to remind myself of the normal/typical aspects of, probably because its name is hard to distinguish from (and used in many recipes at the same time as) other NZ varietals (Wai-iti, Rakau, Taiheke, etc.). Okay, so Waimea is one of those big ol' bruiser types featuring huge AAs and pomelo/grapefruit elements, which makes sense considering this has a ton of oily citrus coming through. It's also kind of a malty bruiser, too, and fun to drink because it combines some nice elements of "old-school bigger West Coast IPA" and "super fluffy juicy new-world IPA" in a single beer. More flavors of passion fruit, tangelo, rosewater, and melon as I sip. Quite the thing here.

Feel is heavy and thick with a low-medium carbonation and oily disposition. Definitely a one-per-session IPA here, and even though it does not meet my strict ABV criteria for "triple IPA" (must be over 10%; no ifs, ands, or buts) it functions as one in a sense, anyway, so it's kinda like an "honorary TIPA" in my eyes. Strong offering from these guys, who have been a little more hit-or-miss than usual lately. Glad to see they still have it in 'em.