Fruitful Life Citrus IPA
Baird Brewing Company / Fishmarket Taproom

 

330ml bottle - that sure doesn't look like the word 'fruitful' on the label, just sayin'. Made with Daidai, Hassaku & Natsumikan fruit, none of which I have ever heard.

This beer pours a murky, medium orange amber colour, with a teeming tower of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly off-white head, which leaves some decent flock of seagulls pattern lace around the glass as it slowly seeps away.

It smells of bready and doughy caramel malt, some mixed citrus fleshiness, a bit of earthy yeast, and further leafy, weedy, and piney green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy pale malt, a muted orange, kumquat, and lemon fruitiness, some damp minerality, and more tame leafy, herbal, and piney hoppiness.

The carbonation is average in its palate-coating frothiness, the body a so-so middleweight, and mostly smooth, as the hops here are generally on their best behaviour. It finishes trending dry, the citrus character edging out the fading malt.

Overall - this comes across as a pleasant enough version of the style, with the fruit additions applied by a deft hand. Not too bitter, and with no sign of the extra couple points of the ol' wowee sauce, pretty easy to drink on the kickoff to the September long weekend!