Five One Three
Platform Beer Co.

 

Welcome back to my Happy New I'm CANming Dahn Offa the Platform to Drink a Beer of My Own Free Will This Sunday (Week 764)! I have been diddling with Platform BC since Week 755 (8=O) & I am ready to finally put Kleveland in my rear-view. This is not animosity towards them for having been purchased by a larger CANcern, but simply a) I am tired of week after week of Platform beers & b) as a Pixburgh sports fan for over 45 years, I have NO love of Kleveland. Sorry.

And now, a CANundrum, of course. I usually try to ramp up from low- to high-ABV in these brewery horizontals, but the next in the queue is a salted caramel Stout or some such. That has its time & place, but when I am knee-deep in AIPAs, I CAN see skipping its place in line. I know, I'm gonna take flak for this, but to do otherwise would be CANsensical.

From the CAN: "Hazy India Pale Ale"; "Grains[:] 2-Row[,] White Wheat[,] Haus Malts Malted Oats[,] Haus Malts Spelt[,] Flaked Oats[,] CaraMalt[,] Acidulated[,] Hops[:] Calista[,] Yeast[:] British Yeast[,] Plato[:] 18[,] IBU[:] 9"; "Ohio Craft Beer".

"A mere 9 IBU?!?" asked the late, great IC2 Dan LaMere, having survived the USS Stark (FFG-31) incident & a USS Normandy (CG-60) plankowner. I will raise this one in a toast to him & STG1 Kenny Longshore, another deceased plankowner. The mighty Norm D. was a death sentence to her plankowners, including Smokin' Joe, our skipper; CTC Jimmy Sevilla & a couple others whose names escape me. How in the holy name of Hell I survived CANcer (for the moment) eludes me. We rewrote modern history with her, becoming the first ship to be homeported in NYC (Staten Island) since the closing of the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard after WWII; the first ship since the end of WWII to have her maiden deployment be in wartime (GWI); the ONLY combatant to both shoot missiles from & be deployed to BOTH maritime locations during GWI (Red Sea & Persian/Arabian Gulf). I was the starboard-side 50-cal machine gunner on my 26th birthday (25 February 1991) when Smokin' Joe left me exposed with a chained-up weapon, no ammo & no choice but to remain at the mount! I still have no idea why I did it, but I waved to one of the Iraqi Imperial Guard, in his retreat from Kuwait back to Iraq & he waved back! 8=O Why I did it & why he did not shoot me are unanswered Qs, but it cemented me in warfare history. I CAN read & watch war fiction endlessly while real-life accounts will trigger my Survivors' Guilt PTSD in all new & different ways. I loved those guys & while MCs & Hulk Hogan refer to people as "Brother", we were. Onward!

I beCAN with yet a CANother Crack! & slow, gentle Glug. It was self-identified as "Hazy", but I still made an attempt at clarity, only to be foiled. At that point, I simply opened up & allowed it to free-flow. This led to massive foaming, forming two-plus fingers of dense, foamy, rocky, eggshell-white head with very good retention. Color was a simply cloudy Golden-Amber (SRM = > 5, < 7). Nose was slightly tropical, but CANmingled with a pleasant grassiness. 8=O Ah, the Spelt shining through the haze! Yes! Mmm. Mouthfeel was medium, but oily-slick on the tongue, wanting to just slide down my throat without even a "Howdy!" let alone some shoo-fly pie or apple CAN dowdy to make my mouth light up & my eyes say …

(www.metrolyrics.com/shoo-fly-pie-and-apple-pan-dowdy-lyrics-dinah-shore.html)

Ha! The taste was neither shoo-fly pie nor apple CAN dowdy, but much more tropical with a hint of grass & NO, not THAT kind of grass, man! Real grass, like the s**t yer old man used to make you mow until you decided to become some sort of long-haired unwashed hippie. This was an interesting drink, but its low bitterness was leaving me cold, especially in the wake of the previous one. Finish was semi-dry. I'm really curious to know what they were aiming for in/with this one. Not bad, but kind of ho-hum overall. YMMV.

 

 

 

Look is classic NE IPA: Heavy haze. Taste is less fruity than most examples of this style which is a refreshing change. Very drinkable.

Streetside is one of the better things going in Cinci, I think. Platform does seriously good work in Cleveland, I know that. I used to want to go there real bad but not so much any more - I heard they did not really have food, just great beer. Maybe I heard wrong. But they are in my oldest of neighborhoods - near West side.

It pours a nice cloudy bright yellow IPA color. I want to paint a room in that. The aroma is missing. Faintly pleasant. The taste is pretty full but not overwhelming. It's a big mouthful of malts and hops. I like the balance. It grows on you. Feels a little boozier than it really is.


Highly recommended. Platform comes through again.

Doughy notes in the aroma, with some tropical fruit in the end. Pours an opaque orange with a thin white head. Sweet flavor notes, with a touch of alcohol heat. The tropical fruit notes are there, but come across a bit thin. Mouthfeel is full and rich. Overall, not bad, but I think it could have been tightened up a bit.

 

Canned on 6/20/19. 12oz can poured into a tulip. Pours a hazy and cloudy yellowish golden; creamy white head that falls leaving great thick retention and sticky lacing. The aromas have lots of bread and malts. Some citrus in the background. The flavors are clean and refreshing. Hints of orange, grapefruit and pineapple. More bread and crackers. Low bitterness. Malts do their thing. Alcohol basically goes unnoticed. Mouthfeel is on the fuller side of medium-bodied with moderate to active carbonation. It's sharp, fluffy smooth and easy to drink.

This is a solid brew. It might not be flashy for the style, but it's simply enjoyable stuff. Once again, it's pretty clean and refreshing. Not bad.