Vandals
Ocelot Brewing Company

Cloudy and not New England IPA than American IPA.

 

Pours fully-hazed pale yellow-gold with a smallish head that leaves good lace. Nose is canned tropical fruit, jackfruit, and sweet garlic. Taste gives me some of that same jackfruit and sweet garlic. Bright and juicy, with a nicely complementing false sense of sweetness on the tongue and light touch on the cracker malt. Pretty damn good all round really. Maybe some will find the overripe tropical fruits and onion/garlic a bit unapproachable, but I'm really digging this one. Pretty much on par with Aslin's better offerings.

 

I liked this beer, but I had a hard time getting really excited about it. It seems like a prototypical solid/good NEIPA with strong citrus (orange, lime), floral, and tropical (pineapple, guava, passion fruit) aromatics and and a slightly less spectacular flavor, dampened from the aroma. It does have a bit more brightness to the hops and a light pilsner malt character.
Feel is slack like most NEIPAs.
Liked it a lot but didn’t love it.

 

 

 

On tap, pours a hazy light gold. Smell is dank and citrusy. Taste follows, with a nice bitter bite in the finish. Feel is smooth and drinkable, maybe a tad undercarbed. Really good beer.

 

On tap at Smoke & Barrel in D.C.

Pours a hazy yellow, with soft, soapy head.

Smell is juicy with notes of mango, oranges and pineapple sorbet.

Taste is juicy upfront, with notes of oranges, mango and pineapple, leading into a strong, piney bitterness and terrific hop bite. Very well balanced with long lingering aftertaste.

Mouthfeel is medium and soft, well carbonated.

Overall, just a terrific IPA, powerful but balanced.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A: This poured a cloudy light gold with moderate white head.
S: It smelled like vibrant fresh grapefruit, with dank herbal hops and green mango and a bit of sweet honey malt.
T: It tasted like fresh grapefruit and dank herbal hops, with some pineapple and green mango and a bit of honey malt. It had a clean bitter aftertaste.
M: It was thick with moderate carbonation. Awesome huge body.
D: This was another top tier IPA from Ocelot. Maybe their best yet? The scent and taste and body were all a perfect display of mosaic hops. The finish was fairly smooth, so it was easy to drink but should be sipped. What a fantastic beer. Highly recommended.

The beer pours a nice white head that dissipates moderately. It has a very nice foam appearance that is pretty good and a bit different than what you usually see. The beer itself is a clear pale gold that has a decent appeal but a little lighter than what I'm used to.

The smell and taste are both fairly hoppy and mostly bitter with a bit of sweetness but the taste is more bitter than the smell. The hop note has a nice pine and dank note that is the dominant note. While there is a bit of a orange juice flavor, it's the weakest of the ones there and adds only a slight bit of sweetness.

The feel is pretty good. It has a nice medium body that is a bit on the thinner side. The carbonation is biting and the texture it adds feels very good. It's a bit dry in the mouth but still drinkable.

Overall, a pretty good beer and worth trying at least once. It's a fairly bitter IPA that is nice and definitely for the hop head or average beer drinker.