Strange Shooting Star-Like Lights
Hop Butcher For The World

 

 

 

 

Cloudy yellow body with two fingers of white foam that fade slowly. Smell is strong with floral hops, some grassy hops too but in much less of a capacity, accenting fruits include lemon and orange. Taste has a lavender like bitterness on the finish that obliterates the fresh and hoppy citrus, pear, and melon, up front, was hoping more pale malts would help reel in the powerful floral hops. Very airy, floral, and a touch soapy in the feel. Conflicted because I really found some aspects to be high quality, and others to need rounding out, guess you will have to decide yourself, still worth your time. Also the can art is beautiful!

 

 

Pours an ultra-hazy, milky pale orange colour, with two fingers of foamy light ivory head. Head holds shape with impressive duration, before slowly slinking down, leaving some lacing behind.

Nose: Rarely do I find divinity in a hoppy beer. The nose on this is truly divine. It's so exotic and fragrant, like nothing else I've ever smelled. Like a perfume. Intensely pleasant, but you can't exactly compare it to anything. There's tart raspberry and blueberry, currant, passionfruit, lime, lilly, gardenia, exotic floral notes, candied blue raspberry, sweet red wine grape, the forest floor after a rain. It's so unique and so exotic, that I have very little in my experience or vocabulary. If nosing this blind, I may very well guess this is a heavily dry-hoppy fruited sour ale or something. It's truly exotic.

Palate: Immediately, a healthy malt sweetness greets the palate. Some toasted grain in there as well. After acknowledging the sweetness, then, much like the nose, a wave of exotic hop flavours flood the palate. Lychee, gooseberry, horned melon, lime, passionfruit, pear, and then everything is beyond my ability to describe. It's like a rainbow. It's like trying to taste a rainbow. It's just too much with nothing to compare too. The finish brings an extremely mild bitterness, with some pine resin and a hint of citrus, as well as some drying, but even at this point, the flavours are still incredibly floral and exotic, and I simply cannot do it justice. Flavour far exceeds it's 5.75% ABV.

Mouthfeel/Body: Soft, plush, and silky. Proper NEIPA proportions. The body of this beer far exceeds its ABV. A medium level of effervescence gives some nice texture and lift to the beer, providing a subtle crisp element. One could easily drink two of these back-to-back, but with how exotic it is, if prefer to savour it. The beer goes above and beyond its ABV, both in flavour and body.

Overall: This beer is absolutely wild. These days, most hoppy beers fall into a few very predictable categories. I generally consider myself pretty good at identifying hop varietals based on their aroma and flavour. This beer breaks the mold in every way. I'm rarely blown away by an IPA, but this is something truly special. The fact that this is a pale ale is even more impressive, considering it possesses all the traits of a proper IPA. This is a beer that has to be experienced first hand to understand. I urge anyone who had access to this to seek it out at all costs. This was a random item in a trade, and it's far outside of my range of distribution. I don't know if this beers uniqueness is due to the use of XPO6300 hops, or simply the quality of the hops used, but I genuinely believe this is something special. I hope to encounter this again sometime. If you're on the fence about trying this, do yourself a favour and take a chance.

 

Got as a gift from TheFugitive. 16 ounce can into tulip glass, canned on 6/4/2019. Pours very hazy medium golden amber color with a 1-2 finger dense and rocky off white head with fantastic retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lasts. Thick foamy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Fantastic appearance. Aromas of big mandarin orange juice, red grapefruit, lemon, lime, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, mango, honeydew melon, red apple, citrus peel/rind, wood, peppercorn, pine, wheat, cracker, white bread dough, lightly toasted biscuit, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of citrus/fruity/tropical/fairly earthy hops and bready malt notes; with big strength. Taste of huge mandarin orange juice, red grapefruit, lemon, lime, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, mango, honeydew melon, red apple, citrus peel/rind, wood, peppercorn, pine, wheat, cracker, white bread dough, lightly toasted biscuit, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness. Light pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, floral, woody, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of mandarin orange juice, red grapefruit, lemon, lime, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, mango, honeydew melon, red apple, citrus peel/rind, wood, peppercorn, pine, wheat, cracker, white bread dough, lightly toasted biscuit, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Fantastic complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/fruity/tropical/fairly earthy hops and bready malt flavors; with a great malt/bitterness balance, and no cloying/astringent flavors after the finish. A bit crisp finishing. Lightly increasing dryness from lingering bitterness. Medium carbonation and body; with a very smooth, moderately creamy/bready/grainy/sticky, and fairly resinous/rindy balanced mouthfeel that is great. Zero warming alcohol as expected of 5.75%. Overall this is a fantastic NEAPA. All around fantastic complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/fruity/tropical/fairly earthy hops and bready malt flavors; very smooth and pretty refreshing to drink with the mellowly bitter/drying finish; nicely soft and not aggressive. Fantastic Cascade, Comet, XP06300 profile. Extremely juicy, vibrant, and fairly dank/earthy hop complexity; with a great balanced wheat/oat/malt backbone. Light residual sweetness with lingering resin dryness. A highly enjoyable offering, and spot on style example as expected.

 

 

 

This is an American Pale Ale coming in a 5.75%. A little lighter than most Hop Butcher stuff I've had. I do like this one as a nice summer beer. It has a nice but not overpowering citrusy aroma. And the taste is citrus and some lemon. I liked the mouthfeel, it was smooth and a little bit creamy.

 

 

 

Great hoppy citrus smell. Refreshing and fruity with a high alcohol content. Another nice Hop Butcher Beer.

Canned 6/4/19; drank 6/7/19 @ the Yarchives.

Cloudy orange/yellow appearance.

A rough pour yielded a big white head; a thick curtain of tree-rung lace.

Orange citrus, lemon & wheat notes in the nose.

Soft medium mouthfeel. Lemon, cream & wheat flavors.

A nice session ale; nice flavors & easy to quaff. I'd have another!