All Is Well At The Station
Southern Tier Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pours clear gold in color with one inch head. Taste is big lemon, lime, with nectarines and biscuit. Medium bodied and carbonation, slightly bitter. Makes for a really enjoyable ipa. Could have several.

Southern Tier Brewing Company "All Is Well At The Station"
One Pint can with completely illegible coding on the base
$4.99 @ Total Wine & More, Cherry Hill, NJ

Notes via stream of consciousness: Nice label. I'm not sure what it has to do with anything, but whatever. The body is a very hazy golden orange beneath a dense head of rocky off-white foam. The aroma is surprisingly limited for a double India pale ale, but then again I have no idea how old this is as the ink-jet coding on the bottom of the can is just a jumbled smear of tiny black dots. If I had to call it, and I guess I am, I'll say it's citrusy with some additional tropical fruit, mainly apricot. Disappointing, but OK, maybe the flavor is a little brighter... and, yes, it is. It's malty sweet but not too sweet, I guess I should have said sweetish, with a good bit of fruitiness that includes apple, orange, apricot, and some peach and grapefruit. There's some light pine as well, and just a touch of resin. It's not a very heavy double IPA, in fact I'd call it just medium to medium-light in body. It's well attenuated, and - what is the alcohol here? - 8.5%, well that's not that strong but it must be helping to cut through some of the maltiness as it finishes with just a light dollop of golden, honeyish maltiness. A firm bitterness backs it as well, and it's one of the drier double IPAs I've had. And it's also fruity/juicy, but not to the levels of a New England IPA, it's not like drinking a glass of juice, you know it's definitely a beer but there is a lot of fruitiness to if. So what did I miss? Ah, looking back, once the head fizzled out the lacing went as well. That's a shame but at least the flavor is good, it's nicely balanced, and it's seemingly lighter and easy to drink. I should have also mentioned that although the alcohol doesn't really show, specifically, it does have a presence, at least in the finish, so you know what you're getting into and you're not going to just drink three in a row and then fall off your stool. Overall I'd say it's a very good-drinking double IPA, very enjoyable, but not one that knocks your socks off. Worth trying.

 

Pours an effervescent honey color with 3+ fingers of rocky eggshell colored head. Sheets of lacing, good head retention, no much hazing to speak of

S: A little grassyness, some citrus

T: Breadyness, tangerine, grassyness & dryness up front, pomelo as well. Citrus bitterness as this warms, almost like cara-cara, some grapefruit too, plus a little sweet orange as well, plus a little breadyness. Finishes with breadyness & little sweet orange, mango & passion fruit, plus dryness, a little pine needle as well

MF: Medium body, slight carbonation, decent balance

Tasty, but there was some off-putting bitterness that messed this up a little, if this would've been more sweet tropical...

Pretty tasty, was hoping for better

Pours a slightly murky amber color. It's not a haze bomb, but it definitely looks the part of an unfiltered IPA. The head is three fingers high and barely off-white in shade. Duration is incredible, as is the texture, and the streaks of lacing that stick to the glass.

The aroma brings a vibrant and intense melon character. It also has a prevalent malt backbone that brings plenty of caramelized sugar, bread, and graham cracker. This strikes me as a balanced IPA where the hop/malt interplay works well together, and not a "balanced" IPA that's just layers of toffee upon more layers of toffee.

It starts off with a nice melon character. This note quickly transforms into a malty middle - a textbook IPA feature. There's light caramel, but more assertive sugar cookie and cracker. It finishes with light grass, pine, and more melon. Thankfully, bitterness is low. It drinks more like a west coast IPA instead of a proper New England version, but it's satisfying all the same.

This features a full, creamy texture, with moderate lingering sweetness. It's just dry enough to leave the palate easily, making this fairly easy to drink. Carbonation is medium.

The whole thing drinks similarly to brews like their normal 2XIPA and Unearthly - it isn't as sugary sweet as the latter and offers more fruity characteristics than the former. I hope the next few batches improve on the solid formula ST has featured even further, because it's tasty stuff right now.

3.66/5: All is indeed well

 

16 ounce can into tulip glass, canned on 12/28/2017. Pours slightly hazy medium golden yellow color with a 1-2 finger dense and rocky off white head with fantastic retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lasts. Dense soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Fantastic appearance. Aromas of big tangerine, grapefruit, lemon, peach, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, mango, melon, berry, citrus peel/rind, light pepper, citrus peel/rind, light pepper, pine, cracker, white bread dough, light honey, herbal, and floral/grassy earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of citrus/fruity/tropical/earthy hops and moderate bready malt notes; with great strength. Taste of big tangerine, grapefruit, lemon, peach, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, mango, melon, berry, citrus peel/rind, light pepper, pine, cracker, white bread dough, light honey, herbal, and floral/grassy earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel, herbal, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of tangerine, grapefruit, lemon, peach, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, mango, melon, berry, citrus peel/rind, pepper, pine, cracker, white bread dough, light honey, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness on the finish for a while. Awesome complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/fruity/tropical/earthy hops and moderate bready malt flavors; with an awesome malt/bitterness balance, and zero lingering hop astringency after the finish. Light-moderate increasing dryness from bitterness. Medium carbonation and medium-plus body; with a very smooth, moderately bready/grainy/sticky, and slightly resinous/rind balanced mouthfeel that is great. Minimal warming alcohol for 8.5%. Overall this is an awesome DIPA. All around great complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/fruity/tropical/earthy hops and moderate bready malt flavors; very smooth and dangerously easy to drink with the modestly bitter/drying finish, never overly aggressive. Simcoe, Amarillo, Columbus, and Chinook hops. Perfect balance of juicy, dank, and vibrant hop complexity; nice bready malt backbone, and not too sweet/heavy for the ABV. A really enjoyable offering, love the classic hop combo.

 

 

I scored this CAN for The CANQuest (tm) at the FGBS on Wednesday, intending to drink it as part of yesterday's New Beer Sunday (Week 676) festivities, but I just ran out of steam at the end of the day. Oh well.

From the CAN: "Science is the Art Collection"; "Unfiltered Double India Pale Ale"; "Episode One of Six"; "Why the hell Not?"

I realize that it read "Unfiltered" on the CAN, but with it being a pint, I did not feel CANpelled to CANduct an inverted Glug. Instead, I Crack!ed it open & CANmenced a slow, gentle Glug into the awaiting glass. I was fairly successful in that there was still some faint haziness in this Yellow-Golden (SRM = 4- 5) colored beer, but it was not cloudy. An in-glass swirl raised two fingers of dense, foamy, French Vanilla-colored head with good retention, leaving behind great lacing in its wake. Nose smelled strongly not of simply melon, per se, but of honeydew, intermingled with pine resin. Mmm. Mouthfeel was medium, but actually kind of light for an ADIPA. The taste was mostly honeydew melon, but there was still a good bit of piney resinousness to keep it from being too sweet. I then poured the remainder of the CAN's CANtents & the haziness increased, but not to the point of cloudiness. The lees helped to push the beer's flavor into a greater balance between honeydew & pine. It then becomes a question of a trade-off between clarity and sweetness or haziness and balance. Hmm. A CANundrum. What really surprised me, though, was the finish, which landed in that twilight zone between semi-sweet & semi-dry. I was not expecting that from this style. It also made it VERY easy to drink, which may not be a good thing in a high gravity beer like this. I look forward to reading others' reviews as they may come in.

A - Straight ahead orange body, just a hint of haze, a moderate white head, lots of medium bubble lacing, coating the glass.

S - Lush fruit nose, a bit of pine, orange, and peach and spun sugar.

T - Opens with a bit of fruit, then a hit of pine, peach notes, and a mildly bitter bite of steeped tea in the close.

M - Very light on the tongue, bright, with just a slight hint of drying in the close.

O - This is a solid, tasty DIPA. Not very hazy, but that makes this no less delicious, and the feel is extraordinarily easy on the tongue. Very nice.