Hip Hops Are F%*#ing Dead
Barreled Souls Brewing Company

 

 

Great collab with Finback! Really smooth triple.

 

Draft at Smokehaus in Amherst
Hazy deep straw in color with a thin white head that dissipates pretty quickly. Earthy spicy floral onion citrus tropical and bread aromas and flavors. Light alcohol warming notes. Pretty nice beer really.

 

Poured into a 16 oz Snulip glass not sure when it was canned but assuming inside the last 2 weeks. Pours Avery attractive hazy orange yellow, with a 2 finger sticky off wh lit head that leaves big foamy streaks of lace, with excellent retention. 4.75

Smell ripe melon, peach, papaya, stone fruit, and apricot. 4.5

Taste explodes on your palate cantaloupe, papaya, peach, upfront with apricot, tangerine, and a little tickle of alcohol in the lip smacking, palate wrecking finish. 4.5

Mouthfeel is big, soft sticky feel as clings to the entire palate, and 11% ABV extremely approachable, but a little heat of alcohol at the end. 4.5

Overall this one is exceptional, for 11% drinks closer to 9% and really really a hop heads Dream, will be looking for more of this one. Cheers all. 4.5

16oz undated can.

Pours cloudy gold with a short, dense head of white. Nice retention and lacing. Candied peach, pineapple, and mango in the nose. On the fuller side of medium bodied with a creamy, soft mouthfeel. Luscious. Sugar-dusted citrus on the palate with zero malt or bitterness. Peach, tangerine, pineapple, and fruit cocktail syrup. Finishes a bit sweet with minimal booziness and lingering tropicals.

 

On tap at Novare

 

 

L - yeah, that's pretty murky. Looks like apple cider. No more words needed.

S - pungent grapefruit rind up front. Develops a crisp, grainy fruity aroma. Hints of banana, juicy fruit, and toasted orange.

T - the taste is much more herbal than the nose suggests. Crisp, dry, and hoppy, but in the middle act somewhere we start to get some juice. Mixture of grapes, honey golden grahams, and tart booze. Starts to brighten up toward the end with green mango, oats, and orange candy. Musty and funky when all is said and done. Leaves a "dirty" flavor in the mouth. Interesting. That herbaceousness comes back in the form of dryness to finish this one off.

F - starts off DIPAish with nice balance between fullness and lively carbonation. Gets a bit mealy toward the end and at the very end, I'm left smacking my tongue against the roof of my mouth as the hop particulates make themselves known. Intense.

O - this is a deceptively big beer. You only start realizing the alcohol content when everything starts feeling heavy and sticky. Reminds me in some senses of 120 Minute. It can get a bit hard to swallow once it warms. ABV too high? Seems like it wants to impart some of that signature Barreled Souls twang, and it's not quite there, but the Nelson does a good job picking up the slack.

EDIT: fuck, this hit me way harder than 11% should. Based on my 120 Minute parallels and how badly I was reeling last night, I'm not sure this maxes out at "only" 11%. This roasted my shit.

L - dense, 2-finger yellowish head atop an ominous orange body.

S - grapefruit, orange, pine, herb.

T - follows the nose. Dank citrus, sweet orange, piney middle, with noticeable booze. Low bitterness. Moderate sweetness. Moderate booziness.

F - medium body and carb.

O - great hop flavors, just a bit too boozy.

Pours a very turbid, milky burnish orange, with almost two fingers of tawny white head that leaves immense lacing behind.

Nose is very concentrated, and I think I smell some Galaxy. Deep, intense, musty overripe stone fruits - peaches, mango, and dried apricot. Earthy and musty. There's also a quick zing of lemon. Maybe a touch of some white grape. The malt base is solid and round. It's almost like it's too concentrated to smell any nuance or complexity. It's rich and in your face.

Palate begins with a sudden explosion of hops that has a firm bitterness with no delay. Almost instantly, you're hit with a bold sweetness from the malt. Definitely oat-heavy. It's also blatantly clear that my suspicion of Galaxy may be correct. This is about as Galaxy as it gets. Musty, fermented peach, mango, and a hint of old lemon. Deep rich earth. Some greenish notes. Bitter. Perhaps a touch of Nelson? I'm getting that sweet, tropical, sort of white grape/passionfruit/cilantro thing that I've only ever found with Nelson Sauvin hops. After everything, you're left with a lingering finish of chlorophyll, bitterness, and a residual sweetness.

Mouthfeel is about as much as you can ask for in an IPA. It's thick, rich, soft, pillowy, and fluffy, with as much effervescence as the thick body can possibly hold. It's the body I constantly chase in a good NEIPA.

Overall: I don't know what this is hopped with. I can say with *nearly* 100% certainty that there's a healthy dose of Galaxy. I think perhaps some Nelson too. Maayybe a dash of Simcoe. I don't really pick up on much else. It tastes like a big, bold, Galaxy-centric New England Triple IPA. There's nothing wrong with that. I have no complaints. I guess I just expected more. If it just said "Galaxy", or some clever name based on it, or even just "3xNEIPA" or something, my expectations would have been altered, and I think I'd be more impressed. If you want a big fluffy NEIPA, and you enjoy Galaxy hops, then this is a brilliant display, and there's very little fault to be found.

Edit: Well I have since been informed that there is no Galaxy in this, but there is in fact Nelson, as well as El Dorado and Citra. I can definitely spot the Nelson, although I'm quite surprised there's no Galaxy. It definitely tastes like it. Oh well. Need to keep studying I guess. Nevertheless, the flavor profile very well matches that of Galaxy. Cheers.

Tropical, citrusy, boozy, yeasty, caramelized malt, some white grape, peach gummies, cantaloupe, orange citrus, grapefruit, floral, medium bodied, smooth