The Creature
Ethereal Brewing

 

 

Big grapefruit and tangerine in aroma, hint of caramel malt.

Flavor is citrusy, then becomes pithy toward the finish, with a nice caramel malt sweetness to balance the fairly bitter finish.

 

This is really an odd beer, as is the alleged inspiration for it. I don't taste the citra hops but get a perfume, rose petal, cucumber, light watermelon, pine, lemon and tea leaf malt. Very easy to drink with an almost watery tone.

Out of the pits of Ethereal Brewing Company crawls this hop-bomb of imperial status. Boasting the ultra bittering power of Chinook hops and the fruity finesse of Citra, a two headed creature delights hop-heads with the juicy tropical and citrus upstart and the deeply resinous bitterness that's sure to keep them coming back to try and slay this creature.

The Creature pours a bright burnt apricot golden orange with a creamy short meringue. Its strong perfume greets the nose with boastful tangerine, nectarine, apricot, red grapefruit and mango. Those citrus and tropical aromas weave into a caramelized, toasted barley sweetness that's light of candied cashews and fruit rollup candy.

With the sweetness holding firm, it gives the tropical and citrus fruits a more radiant, vivid and juicier flavor spread with its caramel, honey and buttery fructose character. But alas, the hop bitterness of Chinook overtakes the fruity finesse of Citra for a sharp, deep, and throat-gripping pine-like bitterness that lasts deep into aftertaste.

As those sweetnesses are slow to relax, the body of the beer remains medium, but with a drying trend that's facilitated by those sticky hop resins and the peppery spice of alcohol. As the ale finishes poignant of grass, herb, pine and the acute pith of citrus, it lingers strong with pine and citrus on the gullet.