Five Of Swords IPA
Holy Mountain Brewing Company - Interbay Brewery + Taproom

16oz can

Pours three big fingers of white head into my willi becher. A little pillowy. Retention is quite nice, after 3 or 4 minutes a half finger still remains. Initial lacing looks pretty good. Body is on the hazier side, but some light definitely gets through. Color is a slightly darker shade of yellow, but not quite orange, lightish for the style. Medium amount of bubbles. Looks pretty nice so far.

Nose has huge mandarin orange notes up front, very juicy, a little sweet. Pineapple follows. Once agitated, some spicy, dank notes come through, helps balance things well. Somewhat standard aroma for the style, but very juicy, and potentially a little too sweet. For now, it’s a nice nose.

Definitely a significant amount of orange, a little pineapple, but not much. Some citrus tang to it, but not very dank or spicy. Not crazy sweet, but it is noticeable. Drinks a little better as the beer settles, but it’s still a little too juicy with not a lot to support it.

The mouthfeel is certainly more the problem here. Sugar is a little too high, carbonation is a little low, and the hops do not provide enough herbal, dank or earthy notes to balance things, nor enough citrus/spice/tang/etc. The body is medium-large, which would usually be fine, but here it just adds to the slightly cloying, un crisp, unbalanced experience. Un crisp would be the best way to describe this. – These problems also improve with time, but not what I will likely remember.

Drinkability is…better as it warms? Which is odd considering the mild sugar.

Appearance turned out pretty nice. The head eventually disappeared, but left behind solid sheeted lacing.

A beer that kinda went up and down as I drank it. Some sips had a good amount of herbal flavor to balance the juice, most did not. Overall I will remember this as a beer that was a little too juicy and a little too cloying, and one of the last IPA’s I would want on a hot day - but it had its moments.

Nice opaque straw appearance with white head that dissipates quickly. Aroma is s nice blend of hops and perhaps peach. Taste is a pleasant refreshing hops and peach combination.

 

 

 

May 2017 Vintage. Probably the most orange juiciest tasting beer I've yet tried, for better and for worse. While I'm impressed that no navels or valencias were harmed in the production of this beverage, I wouldn't have minded a bit more complexity in the flavor and the finish. Juice is nice, but (juicy) beer is better...