Smash & Grab
Vocation Brewery

 

 

440ml can.
L: Light haze, burnt orange colour and a thick, long-lasting, cream head.
S: Overripe mango.
T: Oozing, overripe tropical fruit, a little bit spicy, with a hot alcohol aftertaste.
F: Full bodied and rich with a clean, lighter finish.
O: A heavy, fruit-forward, bruiser of a Hazy DIPA. Not particularly complex or subtle but dangerously easy drinking for 8%.

 

Copenhagen 25/2 2021. 44 cl can from Best of Beers web-shop. Black can with white drawings of hammers and a huge diamond. The name in pink letters.

Pours slightly unclear golden yellow with a small white head. Settles as thin patch of foam unable to cover the surface of the beer. Clinging to the sides of the glass. Moderate lacing.

Aroma is fairly intense with a sweet fruity, lightly fermented odor mingling with citric sour fumes. Mango, papaya. Grapefruit and citrus edge.

Light carbonation. Slightly thick, oily, lightly tingling texture.

Flavor is intense with a fairly strong sweetness followed by a mediu strong citric bitterness. Aftertaste is bitter. Lingers for a while. Finish is dry.

Pretty straight forward but also very nice DIPA.

Very mild smell, describes itself as hard-hitting but was actually fairly muted for a DIPA, citrus and pineapple with a bitter finish, very similar to their Love and Hate

Canned in a little stubbie crafty craft cand and purchased from Sainsbo
Pours a slightly cloudy golden coloured body with thick white head
Aroma is grapefruit glucose
Flavour has pine notes and a bitter tang

Yields a pale, entirely hazed yellow with a bigger, spongy head.

Smells of ripe oranges, luscious papaya and a well dosed amount of passion fruit and lime zest among bready caramel.

Has a soft, smooth mouthfeel with a convincing carbonation level to it, leading to a nice refreshment.

Tastes of sweet toffee, dry, herbal and bitter limes, as well as lighter passion fruit and bread rind. Has a spicy, resinous and almost sticky middle part, challenged by a balancing bitterness. Finishes a little heavier on exotic fruits, together with spicy yeast and tamed, yet prickly, lasting limes and sugar glazed white bread.

Solid, yet muddled and a little out of focus appearing, enriched with cool sounding ingredients, which don’t create any synergy on the palate.

 

440 ml can, from Vinmonopolet, Nettbutikken, shared with my son. ABV is 8.0%. Cloudy yellow to orange colour, moderate to small white head. Nice aroma of peach, apricot, spruce and pine, hints of tropical fruits. Equally pleasant flavour with the same elements as the aroma, also some citrus. Moderately sweet, low bitterness, enjoyable and refreshing for its strength.

Can. 8% ABV. Murky gold. Thin frothy head.
Full on hoppy aroma. Tangerine, grapefruit and lemon.
Sweet tropical and citrus flavours levelling to a mild resin astringency to finish.
Somewhat cloying and viscous. Soft carbonation.
Hardly noticed the alcohol. Dangerous. I prefer something a little more subtle.

 

 

CAN
Cherry amber; dank + mango; thick honey, a ton of blonde toffee, then day old fruit salad + Seville orange, chalky linger.

4 3.75 3.75 4 3.75

Muddy nose and malt forward. Fruit, yeah, but too syrupy, like a barley wine. Whether this is old or just old school, it’s way too dark + sweet for a modern day DIPA.

330 ml can, Vocation Brewery - Pours hazy golden with a small white head which quickly dissipates. Aroma - Huge juicy front - grapefruit, mandarin, tropical fruit notes as well. Light resin overtones but the juice predominates. Taste - Sweet juicy front - citrus and tropical - grapefruit/mango, slight resin feel, bitter finish which remains in the mouthfeel. If you don't like juicy hops avoid, if you do grab it.

Really hazy dark orange color with beige head. Aroma is quite malty with some nutty notes and caramel. Hoppy with orange notes but the malts are overpowering. Taste is quite weird, astringent at first with herbal notes, dry, fermented grass notes, overripe fruits, alcohol. Medium body, low carbonation. A weird beer, not what I was​ expecting from a DIPA.

330ml can into a Spiegleau IPA glass. Paid £3.30 for a single.

Pours a murky, rusted-orange body, with small amounts of fine carbonation visible near edge of the glass. A light, foamy, two-finger in height, off-white head quickly fades to a patchy film and collar, leaving behind only minimal specs of soapy lace.

Sticky resinous pine and caramel malt initially comprise the majority of the pungent nose. Floral profiles follow, alongside big hits of passion fruit and slightly sour gooseberry. Pink grapefruit and orange citrus become perceptible towards the back-end, while notes of mango and pineapple further the tropical impressions. Taste roughly follows suit, leading upfront with bitter resinous pine, juicy pink grapefruit and oily citric rinds. Hints of caramel weave in and out, providing enough balance to prevent piney hops from dominating, but no tangible malt sweetness. Mid-palate, resinous pine begins to fade, allowing blood orange pulp, pith and rind to join lingering grapefruit and develop a subtle, bittersweet marmalade-like profile, which remains long into the finish. Towards the back-end, faint suggestions of mango add mild, fruity sweetness, but passion fruit, gooseberry and pineapple aromas noted in the nose fail to make an appearance on the palate. In the mouth, a medium body and modest amounts of soft, fine carbonation feel slick, smooth and lightly oily. After the swallow, traces of resinous pine resurface, combining with lingering citric skins to provide plenty of hop derived astringency, drying the palate to finish crisp, clean and with restrained, well-balanced bitterness.

Overall this is a very good beer. Hugely resinous and citrusy taste profiles are not ones I tend to normally enjoy. This however, features just enough malt presence to create excellent bitter/ sweet balance, without straying from the hop-forward structure. Taste does lack some of the topical fruits promised by the nose, but ultimately it delivers plenty of intense, refreshing flavour without over-the-top unpleasant bitterness. At 8.5% ABV, alcohol is barely perceptible, drinking well below it’s gravity, to become dangerously quaffable. If Vocation added this to their year-round core range, and priced it in-line, I could see it sitting in my fridge a lot more often. Recommended.