¡Hopsta La Vista!
Longslice Brewery

 

For some reason I wasn’t expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised. A solid IPA with nice color and balanced flavor. A great way to celebrate my 150th recorded beer on Beer Advocate!

 

 

Copper coloured Big and Malty - lots of toffee and caramel balanced by herbal hops.

 

 

 

Can: Poured a clear dark amber/copper color ale with a large off-white foamy head with some retention and lacing. Aroma of caramel malt with dry floral hops with light sugary notes is OK. Taste is a mix of caramelized malt with some dry bitter hops with light resinous notes. Body is full for style with good carbonation. I find it hard to truly enjoy those old-school English style IPA with all the NEIPA floating around.

 

Big malts for a hoops brew. Not a full on in your face hop bomb, so a little odd in that sense. Rusty with a big head, soapy lace. Different for the prominence of the malts, but a little too sweet overall.

 

Got this one at the LCBO in Waterloo

From a 16oz can into a pint glass

APPEARANCE: Pours a 2 finger, medium-thicker looking, creamy, off white head with excellent retention. Clear dark rust orange in color with no carbonation evident. Definitely darker for the style. Head slowly fades to a full wisp and clings to the glass. A splotchy wisp and ring remain leaving some decent lacing down the glass. Darker look is actually rather nice.

SMELL: Pale and caramel malts, honeydew melon, mandarin, watermelon, with notes of toffee as well.

TASTE: Caramel, toffee and melon sweetness up front. Fairly malt forward for the style. Toffee and melon at the swallow with a bolder and lingering finish of caramel, sweet pale malts, toffee flavors, bitter hops, some grapefruit and sweet melon.

PALATE: Medium body and medium carbonation. Creamy on the palate, goes down fine and finishes a bit mouth-coating for the style. A touch of bitterness lingers.

OVERALL: This is definitely darker and more malt forward for the style. The sweet malt character is nice, however, and the hop character works well with the malt base. Tasty stuff. It’s not what we expect from the style nowadays, and if you’re looking for a dry hop bomb, pass on this one, but for what it is, it’s well made and enjoyable.

Can - pours an orange - light copper hazed ale in the glass with a decent off white cap that reduces but lasts. Medium body,,, Aroma is sweet malt over floral- piney tones, Smooth drinking - flavor is malty with decent bitter balance, some minor complexity in the mid palate but it is faint...clean fruity-bittering finish . I can’t help but think this is a good ale on tap fresh but the canned version sublimates a lot of the freshness.

 

 

I enjoyed this beer, but for the style, to me it's just about average for what's in the marketplace these days. The good: a nice look; pours amber orange with a nice fluffy off-white head, clear at first & then some nice cloudy resins come from the bottom of the can. Also good: almost no astringent bitterness in the taste. The malt backbone is solid & smooth, which gives this beer a nice full mouthfeel. The not-as-good: The flavour which comes with the hops is nice; some grapefruit & floral, but a little less full & complex than I'd like. Also - the back end of the sip almost seems a little watery, while some of the better IPAs out there provide a more complete flavour throughout a long sip. In the end, I'd definitely have it again, and it's a crap-ton better than a macrobrew, but it also doesn't quite make the must-have list.

Quick: looks nice upon pour, a little golden copper with a finger or two of head. Smell is heavy Malta and then hops. Taste is malt forward with a hoppy but mild finish. Feel is alright, but is lacking something, it's just blah.

Certainly not the best beer out there. Misses the mark in my opinion.

Appearance - Poured from a 473 ML Can into a Teku Glass. This beer pours surprisingly dark and hazy amberish brown in color. It has a beautifully foamy 2 finger white head and retention seems on point! Carbonation seems to be moderate but seems to be doing a fair job replinishing that beautiful foamy head.

Aroma - This is where it becomes apparent that it is an english IPA There is definitely some grapefruit and leaf aromas up front but they are not all that apparent but what does stand out is the malt. I'm getting very strong aromas of brown sugar, dark toffee and caramel. This is one sweet smelling brew.

Taste - Up front I'm getting a good mix of earthy and citrus hops, It pretty much just seems like grapefruit and orange peel as it is a fairly bitter hop presence. However this is very quickly balanced out by the sweet malts used in this beer which also give it its dark complexion. The flavor is much more sugary than the nose and I feel like it lost the toffee. otherwise this malt profile is very similar.

feel - This beer is not quite a medium body and feels thinner than I would have expecvted. It has very light prickling from carbonation on the tip of the tongue but goes down smooth. an Average feel for an english IPA

Overall - I'm giving this beer a 3.5 or 70% as I feel it is a decent rendition of the style but by far not the best I have yet to try. The flavors mech ok and there is nothing off putting however I can find better examples for the same or less money. Do try it once but I would not suggest buying it a lot. With all this said we all hove our own taste buds! cheers!