IPA #2
Last Best Eatery & Brewpub

 

 

16oz glass at Beer Revolution YEG - number 2 is now alive.

This beer appears a kind of murky medium copper amber colour, with one average finger of puffy, loosely foamy, bubbly off-white head, which leaves some stellar active thunderstorm cloud pattern lace around the glass as things slowly recede.

It smells of mildly grainy and crackery pale and caramel malts, subtle orange and red grapefruit pith, a muted tropical fruit addendum, some understated wet stone path character, and further leafy, weedy, and piney hop bitters. The taste is semi-sweet bready and doughy caramel malt, a twinge of wayward yeast, muddled pome and citrus fruit rind, and more leafy, floral, and piney hoppiness.

The carbonation is moderate in its plain and not oft frolicking frothiness, the body a stolid middleweight, and mostly smooth, with a slyly emerging creaminess. It finishes well off-dry, as the malt seems stuck in for the cause, while those fruity hop notes flit off to check Facebook, or something.

Overall, a genial and easy to put back hoppy brew, but really one more in the pale ale vein of late around here, the seemingly standard 13-proof booze notwithstanding. Good, but it looks like Plan B should be redefined if it wants a new lease on life.