Alpha Factor (Fresh Hop)
Postdoc Brewing

 

Handsome orange-amber brew with lively foam in the New Belgium snifter. Peppery aroma with apricot, avocado, and a touch of the usual citrus. Peach in the nose. Tangy on the tongue with a nice spritz and a light body. Flavors of dark grapes, melon, grilled peach. Some bread and grain plus a woody note in the finish but very little bitterness. This is very mild-mannered but lovely flavors, and it's the easiest-drinking IPA of the fresh hop season. Totally delicious and a good example of some restraint with the hops yielding better results. From the 16 oz can purchased at Elizabeth Station. Dated 08/26/23.

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a transparent, medium golden amber with a two finger white head with good retention and solid lacing. Aroma of pale malt, lightly citrus and dank hops, light lemon and orange. Flavor is pale and light biscuit malt, citrus and piney hops, a little wheat cracker, lemon, hints of grapefruit and pine; modest piney finish with solid bitterness. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. My first fresh hop this year with no haze, don't know if it's filtered or not, but looks like it. Taste is classic fresh hop, with the citrus and pine expected from Centennial, but somewhat subdued. I liked the crackery malt component as a change from the usual dryer pale malts. A bit of different tasting fresh hop as the season seems to be drawing to a close.

2022-10-13
16oz can served in a big snifter. Canned 10/03/22.

Pours clear honey gold with a small head, no visible carbonation, ends up with a fat wispy island and a thinnish ring around the edge of the glass. Smell is somewhat mild, leans toward honeysuckle and vague cut vegetation, moderate vague bitterness.

Taste is mostly a straightforward west coast IPA, but there are some delicate fresh hop things floating around the edges, and the tail end of it gives me a very floral whiff when I breathe out. Definitely dominated by traditional piny bitterness, and decorated by fresh hops.

Mouthfeel is lightish, smooth, and very dry. Overall, it's pretty good.