Parley India Pale Ale
Saint Benjamin Brewing Company

Another beer from the captain of the canquest, woodychandler. Poured from a 12 oz. can. Has a hazy golden color with a 1 inch head. Smell is of grapefruit, mango. Taste is the same, lots of grapefruit, light mango, very little bitterness. Feels medium/light bodied in the mouth and overall is a decent beer, but drinks more like a 4% session IPA.

 

 

I am now waffling between the eradication of The Bottle Backlog here at Chez Woody & the CANtinuation of The CANQuest (tm) since I have made signifiCANt strides on the former & the latter dovetails nicely with some upcoming bottles. In the interim, I have enough CANs for a brief brewery horizontal with Saint Benjamin so that will be my next focus.

From the CAN: "A light body wheat IPA with aromas of citrus & tropical fruits from the Azacca, Amarillo and Centennial hops[.]"

Since wheat was involved & previous reviewers had mentioned a haze, I decided to go with a Crack & inverted Glug with this CAN. I got two fingers of dense, rocky, foamy, bone-white head for my efforts. Color was a lightly-hazy Yellow-Gold (SRM = 4 - 5). Nose smelled of both grapefruit and tropical fruits, just as advertised. The proof of the pudding, however, is in the tasting. Mouthfeel was medium-to-full, not quite creamy, but big for the style. The taste was quite citrusy, very much grapefruit, but the sharpness usually associated with these hops was halved by the sweetness of the tropical fruit flavors. We often hear people saying that many AIPAs are too bitter for their taste, but this one kind of negates that argument. Yes, it was bitter, but not as bitter as many that I have drank. Finish was semi-dry, again, thanks especially to the presence of the tropical fruity hops and possibly even the wheat. Either way, it was a step off of the beaten path.

Nice and fresh, having been canned on the 15th of Jun.

The lightly hazed golden yellow beer pours out into a Duvel glass with a 1/2" white head that begins to slowly but visibly recede leaving behind some ring like patches of lacing with a few legs. The smaller patches of foam on the sides of the glass and the layer of foam on the surface persist for much of the beer. Sipping leaves behind a couple of arches of lacing along with lots of patches and speckles of lacing.

The aromas are mostly citrus (grapefruit zest) backed up by some almost hidden tropical fruits that are hard to identify.

The flavors are much as expected from the nose with the citric hops (grapefruit zest and a bit of lemon) forward and some almost hidden tropical fruit notes in the background. In addition there's some solid bitterness that is moderated slightly by a light grainy, almost bready, sweetness from the malt.

The mouthfeel is on the light side of medium bodied and has some fine slightly prickly persistent carbonation. The finish begins as the citrus, the other fruit flavors and the sweetness begin to fade leaving the long, well controlled dry and bitter ending to shift to the back of the palate and then slowly disappear.

This seems a solid, workman like IPA with a good balance of hops and malt that let the hop flavors take center stage for a while but without having any rough, punishing bitterness. I'd definitely be willing to have another one, especially if downtown and visiting the brewery taproom.

Saint Benjamin Brewing Co. "Parley Summer IPA"
on tap at the brewery on 21 May 2016
$4/8 oz.

Notes: 6.0% ABV. Surprising appearance. Hazy gold (looks like a hefeweizen without all of the effervescent bubbles streaming upwards). Nice white head. Very good head retention and lacing. Citrusy in the nose, but even fuller in the flavor with notes of grapefruit, citrus rind/pith, lemon, herbs and mint. Interesting combination. Some grainy malt is clearly present but still gives way to the hops, and it's nicely balanced. Stiffly bitter, it finishes dry with lingering herbal notes. Forgiving its haziness as it's probably dry-hopped and maybe even unfiltered, it satisfies the senses straight through without going overboard as so many IPAs currently do, leaving it remarkably drinkable.