Loki
OEC Brewing (Ordinem Ecentrici Coctores)

 

 

 

No canning date (released ~10/28/19, so presumably canned within a week of that date)

Pours hazed lemon gold body capped with multiple fingers of silky white froth; excellent head retention shows the cap trailing off steadily to a consistent, thin cap, a brooding, creamy ring trickling up the glass, and a uniform layering of thick lacing.

Aroma opens with notes of ultra-dry pine and fresh evergreen, slowly integrating passionfruit and papaya; a faint sweet mango interlude appears before a dry citrus resin dominates the remainder of the bouquet.

Taste further displays the earthier tones of dry evergreen, while papaya and spiced tropical rind again take a calmly integrative but background role; vague blueberry and dehydrated lemon peel provide a more subtle change of pace into the finish.

Mouthfeel brings a wet medium-light body and a contrastingly fluffy moderate-high prickly carbonation; bone-dry, flaky crispness throughout along the palate; a juicy tone meshed with lightly bitter funk fades into the finish, leaving a mostly clean, easy swallow.

The kveik yeast treatment is certainly a unique one, offering up a more raw, funkier earthy side to the tropical notes so commonly pulled from hops in the pale ales of the past few years; for this pale ale in particular, the unique touches of the kveik displayed a steady harmony and no shortage of intrigue on the palate, and an inherently quenching nature. Once again, OEC manages to take something different and just make it work.