Pleasant Trees
Steady Habit Brewing Company

Poured from a growler into a Duvel tulip.

Appearance: Semi translucent amber. Free pour yields a huge, lasting frothy bonewhite head. Thick rings of lacing.

Smell: Lot of pine and Simcoe/Chinook/Summit style dank greenhouse aroma. Definitely highlight of peach. What is this, like a heavily Simcoe dryhopped beer with Amarillo? Falconer's flight? Who knows, but it smells like a really bold, delicious IPA. Tinged with lime/lemon citrus as well.

Taste: Mmm, that pungent Simcoe-y note is just as prominent in the flavor. Pine bitterness--really prominent IBU bitterness in this one like the first Steady Habit IPA I had--love it! IPAs don't need to be afraid of bitterness just because Heady Topper smooths its way down one's gullet.

Great flavor here, ambiguous citrus tinging earthy hops and pine. Those really nice, soft peach and almost-guava highlights from the aroma are present in the taste as well here. Really cleanly differentiated flavors in excellent balance. Not a lot of pronounced malt flavor, but it's not like it's watery or anything, just dominated by big, likely-American hops. Straightforward hop head beer in the Green Flash Imperial IPA or Sierra Nevada Torpedo tradition, but with beautifully elaborated hop flavors. It's what I *wish* beers like Torpedo and Ruination tasted like.

Mouthfeel: Solid. Medium bodied, almost-juicy. Finishes with kind of an oily hop slickness that matches perfectly with the pine and bitterness blast. Semi dry at the very end.

Overall: Kind of reminds me of Pliny, or like a New England take on Pliny. The mouthfeel doesn't have Pliny's perfection, but I'll take these big hop flavors every day. Citrusy and peachy though they occasionally are, this is *hop* flavor; not stone fruit simulation, not grapefruit infused alcohol and IBUs but the earthy, piny, marijuana-cousin flavor of big, slap you hard in the face hops. Excellent beer.

 

L: this is a nearly perfect looking IPA. Hazy amber/copper body. The head is creamy and bubbly and it leaves a beautiful white lacing on the glass.
S: Pine, grapefruit peel and carmel sweetness dominate the nose. As the beer warms a vary faint whiff of stone fruit can be noticed. Very nice smelling beer.
T: Very piny up front that welcomes in citrus notes. The citrus eventually gives way to the pine again in the finish. Very solid flavors that work well together.
F: Very nice carb on this beer. The malt balance allows for a very soft feel, however the bitterness is aggressive which diminishes the soft characteristics.
O: This is a very different IPA offering from SH. Admittedly it's not my favorite from the brewer, but still a very enjoyable brew.