Rendez-vous
Finback Brewery - Glendale

 

 

It's another modern American IPA, brewed mostly with starches other than barley malt. It's the stark white foam a careful pour from a pint can produces. It's the dull and dense dirty blond-amber now observable within a clear glass Imperial pint mug. It's the fruity reference within the aroma. It will be the scant and irregular glass lacing, once the draining process commences. This time, the fruity character is a combination of citrus and tropical. It drinks smoothly, but a little chalky, often contributions from oates. The sweetness is more simple and more pronounced than if from whole grains. Of course, the 9% ABV has a play there. Yet, the body carries the alcohol nicely and mutes the hops in a New England IPA way. Only in the aftertaste does the hop/alcohol combination turn slightly bitter. The hops are more earthy and less fruity than the nose predicted. This is a pleasant tasting brew, but it's only distinctive quality is how smoothly it delivers a reasonably high ABV. Maybe that's enough. The glass lacing was scant and somewhat irregular.