The Swans Of Lir
Hop Butcher For The World

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Missed out on this last year, thanks flu, but got my hands on this weird beer. The pour looks like something out of a star wars bar, mucous lime green with various shading. The thin white ring is almost lost, points for originality. Vanilla hits the nose first, then the mint before settling into some grassy hops. Taste is a little more muddled together, mint starts to take its claim to the throne against vanilla as it warms, hops are there to see it all unfold, slight citrus lingers. Feel is not very thick for a milkshake, hops felt more here, vanilla coolness and lactose sweetness build, so drink cold! It is fun, it is odd, an experiment for st paddy's!

 

16 ounce can into a tulip snifter. Canned 3/8/19, had 3/18/19.

Pours a lovely shade of pea green, cloudy, with a one inch head of light green foam and a ring of bubbles that follows down the glass. Aromas of vanilla, some mint, citrus hops- lime, lemon, orange. Smells creamy and a little dank as it warms. The flavor also begins with the vanilla, then a little more mint than the nose, citrus- orange and lemon, some malt. Not complicated, but delicious. Smooth, creamy, a very good light body, well carbonated.

This is really well done. The vanilla obviously stars and while the mint isn’t prominent, it makes its presence felt. Actually felt this could have supported more mint. The hops round out the aroma and flavor profile. Well worth a purchase, even if you’re on the fence about mint.

 

 

 

The beer name is some kind of prog rock reference, I think.

I didn't read the can so I didn't know this was an IPA made with mint and vanilla, and so I was taken aback by the hideousness of the pour. It's sewage green. Very hazy. The only positive comparison I can make is to maybe something they'd have at a storybook garden? Or perhaps the poisonous liquid utilized by the plant-monster citizens of Nilbog in the movie Troll 2?

It smells mostly like a fruit-forward contemporary IPA and also a little like the Thin Mint cookies the Girl Scouts sell. This combination doesn't really work, but it's not as off putting as you may think. It's entirely okay.

Tastes like two completely different and incompatible flavor profiles smushed together. It certainly doesn't work but it also doesn't completely fail. Again, it's okay. Fruity hops with mint and vanilla.

Honest to god, the nearest comp I can think of is if you put a stick of Juicy Fruit gum atop a Thin Mint cookie. It's impressive in that it's not as horrible as it rightfully should be. It still doesn't really work, though.

The look was a light murky green. The smell was vanilla and a lot of it. The taste was a lot of vanilla and some mint. Maybe a little bit alike a shamrock shake. Nice smooth finish. Just weird drinking a green beer.

 

 

Tasted in a Spiegelau IPA glass from a one pint can on March 17, 2019. Collaboration with Eagle Park Brewing Company. Citra and Cashmere hopped milkshake double IPA brewed with mint and vanilla. Looks like pea soup. Tastes like a shamrock shake.