Dankonia
Greenpoint Beer & Ale Company

Picked this up at Greenpoint way back when - having a can then and this now as I finally am getting around to those beers in my stash. More left coast than local, this wasn't that dank as it was full of tropical flavors and resin, which was a bit different than what I was accustomed to from this brewery. Not as much sediment in this as there was from other brews that I've had from them recently as this was pretty clean from start to finish.

A soft, apricot hue was the hallmark of this beer as the head and lacing on this weren't anything terribly impressive or long-lasting. Lots of pine, orange pith, and earthy hops in the nose as the taste was thankfully, a bit lighter. White grape, peach, resin, and yeast rounded out the mouthfeel as this was balanced, slick, and tropical in it's undertone. Dank, this was not but it was quite heavy with plenty of resin and herbal notes in the aftertaste to make this feel like a hybrid between something from California and England. Maybe Greenpoint just happened to be the actual and proverbial midpoint between the two?

A fair amount of booze was in this but it wasn't terribly noticeable and the warming effect of it complemented the hops and flavors somewhat nicely. While not a bad beer, I feel that it's name was a misnomer. True northeast-style IPA's would blow this out of the water when it came to the dank factor but as it was, this was a full and solid example of what one could be if the volume could only be turned up to 10. In this day and age, that's just not possible anymore!

...it smells like weed in this beer.

Dank dank dank. Real tasty. But man, that aroma. I felt like had to hide it from my kids at dinner last night.

 

 

 

 

Not a perfectly clear pale golden color, but not NE-style either. Boy, much as I love dem hazy, fruity beers, I do love beers that break from that form, too. Appropriately dank, meaning, piney, resinous, a little chewy, something herbal (read, weed-like :cool:) about it - wraps around the palate with something earthy and sweet... Bitterness is relatively mild, sweetness about even with it... Medium feel, kinda shellacky, kinda tacky - what you'd want from a beer called Dankonia... 7.6% abv, feat. Summit, Eureka, and Waimea hops... No canning date, but presumably fresh...

 

 

 

Tall can w/o dating info...hello it's 2017...95% of your competitors are dating their products...just sayin...

Pours lighter amber, moderately hazed, eggshell head, lasting and then leaving a thicker frothy collar and low sheeting...

Herbal and mildly lemony/citric nose

This is called a "Dank IPA" on the can....c'mon people...false advertising/over hyping/phony use of buzz words...very little "dank" going on here...this is a decent IPA, slightly resiny, slightly citric...nowhere near the all stars/heavy hitters of the genre, with Other Half and Trillium coming to mind...truly not worth the $5.75(!) for a 16 oz can I paid for it....respectable/decent yes....dank? no- a good value? no

Poured from a 16oz can into a speiglau IPA glass.

Look is a hazy pale yellow with a thin white head.

Aroma is incredible herbal citrus and a little gum ball.

Taste matches aroma. Lots of lemon and herbal bitter but then gives way to an intense dank aroma.

So good.

 

CAN: 4-pack purchased at a Whole Paycheck in New York City for $16.99. 16 fl oz. Aluminum. Pull-tab. Fun artsy label design.

"A rye IPA brewed with super pungent Summit, Eureka, and Wimea hops."

Served cold into stemware matching the icon printed on the label.

HEAD: ~1 inch in height. Off-white. Fluffy, somewhat soft, frothy, creamy, appealing. Not the most robust or even head, but retention is nice - ~8 minutes. Light lacing clings to the sides of the glass as the head recedes.

BODY: Slightly hazy yet transparent and translucent pale copper. No yeast/lees are visible within.

Appears well-carbonated. Not a unique or special appearance for a rye IPA, but generally appealing I guess. It's not much to look at.

AROMA: Onion, grass, New Zealand hop tropical fruit character (guava and papaya), tang, mild resin. The "apparent orange" promised by the label is conspicuously absent. Not cannabis-redolent (which I think is what many mean by the descriptor "dank") nor oily.

Aroma is definitely pungent and inviting, with a fairly fresh hop aroma. Any hop bitterness is countered by pale malt sweetness. No troublesome sweet caramalt or anything, luckily.

No off-notes. No booze. No overt yeasty notes (to style).

TASTE & TEXTURE: Coating, with a bit of a carbonation bite and an unpleasant roughness on the palate. Slightly dry as well.

Grassy, with some herbaceous and tropical fruit-redolent flavours (though the guava and papaya are muted and it isn't horribly expressive). Pale malts balance out any overt hop bitterness. Pith, floral flavour, onion/garlic.

Medium-bodied, slightly overcarbonated.

Not real dialed in in terms of balance or focus of flavour. Depth of flavour is lackluster. Flavour duration and intensity are average.

I find no off-notes.

Lacks clear focus or direction, and fails to live up to its epithet. Hardly "dank" in the cannabis-evocative sense. Not oily, orange-redolent, or particularly resinous (contrary to the label's promises). I mean, conifer? Nah...

OVERALL: Drinkable but rather underwhelming. The beers I'm drawn to that this brewery puts out tend not to be their IPAs; their expressions of styles like blonde ale and pilsner are far more impressive than this. It's unclear what they're after with this one, and it's not a great or even good IPA by any stretch, though I do like that it isn't egregiously imbalanced or bitter for bitter's sake like many IPAs out there (e.g. Stone, Green Flash).

Though price doesn't affect my rating, it's hardly worth $4.25 a pint, especially when better regarded NYC beers like those from Grimm and Other Half are $4.99 or less (not to mention far cheaper and superior expressions of the IPA style like Lagunitas', Bear Republic's, and even Ballast Point's).

C+ (3.11) / ABOVE AVERAGE