ISO
Gun Hill Brewing Company

I CANnot help myself (to some extent) when visiting The Beer & Beverage Shoppe on Roseville Road in Manheim Township - some beers just seem really CANpelling, especially when it comes to The CANQuest (tm). This was a recent acquisition.

From the CAN: "Fruited Sour Double India Pale Ale with Tangerine & Passion Fruit[,] Hopped with Citra, Mosaic, Mandarina Bavaria"; "Make Life a Declaration"; "N. Y. State Labeled New York".

I Crack!ed open the vent & beCAN a slow, gentle C-Line Glug into the awaiting glass. This netted me two fingers of foamy, soapy, rocky, bone-white head with very limited retention, quickly falling to wisps. Color was an oh-so-slightly-hazy Golden-Amber (SRM = > 5, < 7). Nose was less sour than tart, but in a pleasant, citrusy way. Mmm. I was anxious to get this one going. It smelled of tangerine & grapefruit, which are two of my faves. Mouthfeel was thin-to-medium, not watery, but no great shakes, either. The taste was equally citrusy with a load of tangerine, orange & grapefruit and while tart, it was NOT at all sour. The Mosaic hops got overwhelmed in the mélange as I did not really perceive much in the way of tropical fruits, but no great loss, IMHO. Did I mention that it had a definite tartness? My lips have become chapped of late & I am unable to use balms as I have begun to have allergic reactions to them in my advancing age. This beer was not only puckering but irritating to my lips! The price you pay … Man, this was tasty! I should be averse to sour/tart IPAs as a hophead, but I find that they CAN be rather pleasant and a wake-up call for my (occasionally) jaded tastebuds. This was definitely a bargain off of the close-out shelf! I just kept licking my lips in a CANtemplative way, CANsidering all of the various iterations of IPAs & how far I (& they) have come in the past twenty (20) years since my retirement from the Navy. Finish was dry, tart, puckering & just what I needed. Yum. YMMV.

A: The beer is slightly hazy pale yellow in color and has a light to moderate amount of visible carbonation. It poured with a short white head that quickly died down, leaving just a minuscule collar around the edge of the glass.
S: Moderate aromas of sour fruit are present in the nose—oranges seem to stand out in particular.
T: The taste follows the smell and is quite sour—so sour that it nearly masks all of the underlying fruit flavors.
M: It feels light- to medium-bodied and rather tart on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: The description for this beer is right on as it is very sour—so sour that it could make your mouth pucker.

Serving type: can

My first sour DIPA, so take this review with a grain of salt.

Hazy gold color.

This is a refreshing beer. I could see myself crushing a few on a hot day--even with the 8% ABV. The nose is dominated by citrus notes with some pineapple creeping through. Some piney, hoppy notes with a deeper inhale.

Very sour. Bitter, hoppy notes on the back of the tongue. Mouthfeel is pretty full.