Hop Totem
Blue Owl Brewing

RB transfer

 

 

 

L- Pours a decent looking beer. Small head, and an interesting golden/copper body.
S- Hmm.. Interesting smell to say the least. It's extremely sweet with some bubblegummy brettanomyces, sour tartness as well, some hop. Doesn't really resemble much of an IPA so far. But overall the smell is very powerful, floral and good.
T- This is where this beer gets confusing to me... It has a slight bit of bitterness that seems to be nice and light, but it also has a very sour, bubblegummmy tartness to it as well. The piney hop flavor meshes surprisingly well with the sourness, but it loses me in the overall bitter bite and sour sting. It's leaves an overall unpleasant aftertaste. It's really a mixed bag for me. I certainly like it, but I certainly find my issues. It tastes like a blended beer.
F- Dry finish. Pretty nice.
O-There needs to be more consistency and unification in this ale to make me really enjoy it. It's going somewhere but it isn't there yet. I support this idea and I really like it. It seems like an interesting idea for sure. The beers really are just polar opposites. Ehh. At least it was interesting.

 

 

 

 

there are some of their beers that this sour profile works brilliantly in, and others where its not necessarily the right fit, and this falls into the latter camp for me. it seems like most if not all of their beers have the same sour mashed clean lactic tartness, without any funky brett, more complex bacterial maturity, or much else at all really on the yeast side, and while its amazing in the berliner and the gose and even the pale, it leaves a little something to be desired in this ipa, at least for me. the hop profile is nice, a cool mix of juicy dry hopped citrusy brightness, orange and grapefruit and tangerine, but also a little higher alpha vegetal bitterness, which gives a pretty complete spectrum to this. the body seems insanely light, broken down quite a bit by the lactic acidity thats so prevalent all the way through this one. i still like how clean and citrusy the sourness is, it compliments the hops really well, but it ends up taking this one away from ipa for me, and it might be better by itself than it is next to so many of their other beers which this identical sour profile is more agreeable. still light and summery and very drinkable for a sour. tasty but not their best beer.

Nabbed a sixer at a grocer in Austin, TX. No best by date or brewed on date is listed on the can. Standard pull-tab 12 oz format. Label is baby blue.

"Sour IPA." No ABV is listed, nor are the bacteria or hops used.

BODY: Vibrant clear copper.

HEAD: ~2cm in height. ~5 minute retention.

AROMA: Orange peel. Rind. Melon. Faint lactobacillus twang. Pink peppercorn (I think?). Minerally towards the back end.

Not very hoppy nor very sour, but it seems refreshing and balanced for what it is (which seems more like a pale ale with a mild lacto culture).

Aromatic intensity is mild.

TASTE: Yup - it's just what the aroma suggested. A mildly sour but entirely pleasant ale with a mild hop presence. Not hoppy enough to satisfy IPA standards, nor sour enough to be in league with most sours, but it's got a bit of both and I guess that's what one expects when one buys it.

Hop profile isn't bad but isn't special. I don't find any bacteria aside from lactobacillus nor do I find any overt wild yeasts/brettanomyces/microflora.

TEXTURE: Medium-bodied, refreshing, coating, twangy, slightly acidic, smooth, wet, well-carbonated.

Not oily, gushed, astringent, harsh, rough, scratchy, or boozy.

OVERALL: I've long dug the cut of Blue Owl's jib, and this is no exception - though there is ample room for improvement. Well worth trying once, but at this price (I think it was $12-13 per sixer) I'd sooner stick with imported Belgian sours or American pale ales/IPAs.

High C+ / ABOVE AVERAGE