Long Distance Distancing
WeldWerks Brewing Co.

Tasted in a Spiegelau IPA glass from a one pint can on May 1, 2020.

Pours a hazy, murky, matte drab orange color. Thick pillowy off-white head dissipates slowly leaving a thick mountain of foam on top of the beer. Ringlets of lacing are left on the glass as the beer is consumed. The murkiness in this one isn't great, but the head retention is excellent.

Aroma is really interesting - these hops are admittedly pretty new to me, and as a result the aromas seem unfamiliar. Reminds me almost a pink starburst on the nose - got a strawberry sequel fruity aroma with a bit of a mild tartness. Otherwise, very tropical - papaya, kiwi, mango, and sweet melon. There is a definite sweetness to this beer - and its noticeable immediately on the nose.

Taste is about as unfamiliar as the nose. I get notes of papaya, kiwi, mango, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, strawberry and some grassy bitterness. There is a strong sweetness to the beer - I can't tell if this is just super sweet or if it has lactose causing some of that. Either way, it results a strong creamy sweetness and the interplay of that creamy sweetness and the fruit results in a tropical fruit paleta-like flavor profile. For me, this is too sweet - it makes it unenjoyable to drink a full 16 ounce can.

Feel is medium to full bodied for a DIPA - its just thick and hefty. Bright carbonation helps, but can't balance out the weight. A bit of a hop burn on the back end burns the palate.

Overall this was an interesting beer - the hops give you some really cool and unique flavors, but its too sweet for me.

Opaque dark orange, a finger of foam and delicate lacing.
Aroma is nice, sweet citrus/tropical elements and hop botanicals, creamy coconut, oak, fruit smoothie.

Taste has a sweet custardy fruit element, unique but hard to describe. A little bubblegum and jackfruit. Moderate hop bitterness that has a slight edge to it. Supple feel, moderately sweet with a balancing bitterness. Overall it holds it’s own, but not really compelling enough to drink again.

Not a bad imperial IPA but expected a little more from a collaboration between two great breweries. 4/10/20 date printed on can. Pours a very slightly hazy yellow-orange color with a little fluffy white head and nice looking soapy sheets of lingering lacing that lasted throughout. Smells of fruity hops, pineapple, grapefruit, lemon, tangerine, a little mango. Also some malt, vanilla, bread and weaker herbal hops. Taste follows the nose, good balance and fairly good depth. Smooth mild mouthfeel, good carbonation. Tasty but not spectacular.

Hazy dark yellow with a eggshell white foam head, so lazy lacing down the glass. Dry hops gives way to an aroma bouquet of melon, passion fruit, star fruit, papaya, peach and mango. Really found the taste to do 2 things exceptionally well: burst forth with the fruit cornucopia, add pineapple and grapefruit to the nose fruits, and then pull back the fruits in a ripe fashion with the dry hops that got bitter on the finish. Very satisfying. Feel is more fruity and lush but there are decent hop bitters and dryness to help mold, lighter for sure.

Can. White head with lace. Hazy burnt orange color.

Melon and honeydew. A bit of abv shows. Mango and papaya. Very juicy and tropical. Earthy hops, but daily soft. Has a creamy, yogurt flavor. I dig this.

 

 

 

Quarantine day fifty six: I bought wine for my underage daughter today. And my cat. Why not? They’re suffering too. 16 oz. can.

The pour is as pure a can of orange juice as Anita Bryant ever poured. The smell is stereotypical hazy: tropical fruit sweetened with handfuls of raw sugar.

Social Distancing – I might like to be socially distanced from this beer. Holy shit. There’s enough sweetness in this that I can feel my arteries hardening & narrowing as I sit here, though that may just be from the eight weeks the gym has been cordoned off. Raw sugar poured into paper cuts in my mouth & perhaps some grapefruit, plus pith, plus sugar. Sixteen ounces is about ten too many.

JFC. This might put me off NE IPAs for a while. The sweetness is ridiculous & overpowering. Sub-par.

This is a nice NEIPA.
But before I tell you why, let me say this..... The time also has come to give NEIPAs an Imperial category. To a malt-head like me, the difference between this NEIPA and an AIIPA is night and day. NEIPAs sell fruit with a few hops for balance. AIIPAs sell hops and say "f the fruit." Throwing an 8.8% NEIPA in with an AIIPA is an insult to the former and elevates the later.

All that said as briefly as I can, Long Distance Distancing gets its first BA review, unfortunately, from me.
LDD arrived in my second shipment from Tavour. LDD Looks normal and Smells like the NEIPA's typical fruit medley. Tastes are better balanced than typical as the bitter hops are well-restrained... although these in LDD do dry out the buds in the after-taste. In the mouth, refreshing... wonderfully refreshing.

My first Weldwerks (and Central Standard), I went on the former's website. And they strike me as the typical home brewers-finding-their-bliss as brewers. While only 5 years old, they have amassed an incredible 400 brews listed on BA.
Now, somebody else review LDD and give these guys the fair shake they deserve.