Number of the Yeast
Cloudwater Brew Co.

I had a hard time deciding what to choose as the style for this beer. In aroma, the 38g/l of tropical hops show. JW Lees yeast flavours and a "British" malty body (cookies, hints of toast) make it an English barleywine at heart. There's nothing that quite fits in our style palette on this site. Might be good if the menu had the ability to denote mixtures of styles. If that were possible, I would have noted down Barleywine / NEIPA. Instead I chose American barleywine although that is not really it, but this certainly is not a British one in the traditional sense. But now to the matter at hand.

44cl can, bb already sadly 2m past (but only 3m old), a leftover can I finally got around to review, but I remember the fresher sample.

Murky soda-like orange, a tad of lace and a quickly sinking head.

Nose definitely has the pineapple advertised on the can. Slightly burned honey underlying the hard to pin down aroma screaming 'tropical'. Might be papaya, might be persimmon etc. An edge that reminds me of maquis.

Mouthfeel is pleasantly thick, which first comes as a shock, and then becomes satisfying, with sparkling edges of pineappley bitterness at the sides of one's tongue. The upfront malty sweetness stays long, the tropical bite washes it away, leaving behind a washed-up bitterness that leaves you thirsting for more. The high alcohol is very well hidden. Exquisite. Warming up, the JW Lees becomes ever more recognizable.

The beer this reminds me of the most, even if quite unique as such, is Schneider Tap 5 Hopfenweisse. The same "tropical hops meeting sweet body", in the context of a classical European style and a classic brewer. This is an area that should be explored more by European brewers. After all, technically the "American" hopping is the trivial part, and I have only very rarely come across really convincing non-European versions of the underlying styles. Yeast, malt and mashing matter.