Face to Face
Ocelot Brewing Company

Can dated 2/26:
This Ocelot beer uses, in addition to its normal Pilsen malt some oat malt and flaked wheat. That perhaps help explain it's Hefe/Berliner weissbier look. The hops are Citra, Mosaic, and Amarillo, so a few classic hops. The head was fluffy white at first, and a few tufts of it remain on the glass as I drink. The snowy collar seems to want to reach up the glass to avoid the dull white golden, hazy abyss. A thin film stays pretty resilient.

Nose has the classic Citra and Mosaic overripe to borderline rotting citrus. There's some sweeter aspects from and some orange and tropical notes. Deep inhales bring out the Pilsen malt and wheat notes, but also an impression there may be some hop burn to this one.

A bit of a dirty water taste opens up. I'm used to part of this in many (especially pre-haze) Ocelot beers - a clean opening. They became my favorite brewery in the area because of the use of lighter malts that let the hops drive the beer's characteristics. The dirty part I think is from either the oat or the pure bitterness of the hops sneaky into the front of the taste. It thankfully isn't as notable as the beer warms, where it is replaced by a bit if candied orange sweetness.

The tropical mango and tangerine/orange citrus sweep in the clean things up, moderating that rawness and transforming it to hop bitterness. The beer almost gets to a tangy tartness at its apex, but descends to notes of citrus rind and finally some dry pine needles (and a little return of the river water from the opening). The potential for hop burn went unmet, to the beer's credit.

A pretty nice bitter-leaning beer with a hop profile I enjoyed. This beer is dry and does let the hops do most of the lifting, but there was a little distraction from that "dirty" aspect. That said, if they make it again, I'd grab a pint from the brewery.