Punch Chugger
Refined Fool Brewing Co.

473 mL can from the brewery; no packaging date. Served barely chilled.

Pours a cloudy apricot-yellow hue, featuring nearly two fingers of soapy, foamy white head that dissipates over the next several minutes. A respectable swath of lace is deposited in its wake, with a creamy collar and filmy cap living on - looks good to me. The aroma is fruity, but not quite to the extent I'd have expected for an 8.5% DIPA containing three fruits. I'm getting canned pineapple, grapefruit, orange peel, pine needles and a smidge of mango, backed by hints of wheaty graininess.

Fruity and approachable, at least initially. Pineapple comes through most effectively, but there's also notes of mango, apricot, melon, wheat, mandarin orange and pear. Blood orange and piney hop bitterness assert themselves on the back end, clashing to some extent with the fruity-sweet flavours of the forefront; mildly warming aftertaste with pine needles outlasting pineapple and stone fruit. Full-bodied, with low carbonation that softly tickles the tongue, contributing to its smooth, juicy mouthfeel. OK drinkability, but by the last third of the glass I was ready to move on.

Final Grade: 3.6, an adequate B grade. Punch Chugger started off mellow and appealing, but finished on the flat side. The "fruit punch IPA" subtitle is mostly accurate: typically when I see "fruit punch" I'm expecting red fruits, but they went with yellow/tropical fruits instead - and frankly, without the pineapple I'm not sure this brew would've come together for me at all. I dunno, I just don't feel strongly about this one way or the other - it's not bad, but I have no real desire to drink it again.