Fruity Dabs
Separatist Beer Project / Separatist Bar + Bottle

 

Two finger plus head, orange tannish hue, whipped up and airy, craters form easily across the surface. Amber liquid with a very mild haze to it, consistent stream of tiny bubbles visible. Heavily malted nose, granola and scone, the orange citrus comes through much clearer than the vanilla, pineapple, mango fruit, as it starts to dissipate in general the underlying herbaceous funk comes to the fore. Full-bodied, thick and oily texture, treacly. Candied orange peel with a touch of tangerine. Fruit cocktail of sweet pineapple, apricot, melon, cherry flavors. Makes a halfhearted stab at using the herbaceousness to dry it out some. Maybe some pine in there with the baked pie crust and challah bread. Carbonation fluffs it up but really can’t lift it off the palate. On the boozy side. Makes a statement but too over the top pour moi. (Canned 4/16/20)

 

DATE: May 15, 2020... OCCASION: watching The Revenge of the Sith after finishing The Clone Wars with the boys yesterday--reason enough to watch this again... GLASSWARE: Duvel snifter... background: I was psyched to find this in cans this week at Liquor Factory; my last taste came at the establishment formerly known as Sole, sharing a great evening with friends and a former student. Michael worked there and recommended heavily the Fruity Dabs... let's see if it still tastes as fresh and bright as it did then... straight out of its hipster can design, a dark amber body clouded with active bubbles that form a frothy, single-fingered off-white head... lime, grapefruit, and orange are doubled up in the Amarillo and Citra hops--a redundancy? faint vanilla, dank yeast, and intense floral wafts make this a bit nuanced.... wet vegetable and cereal malts inject some balance into an otherwise sharp hop missile... the first sip brings an oily rush, crashing into the teeth and ringing them, while its body borders on a boozy swagger, which is its only hint that an 8.7% ABV beckons... its finish is not fully developed, as it sloughs off to a thinness... the flavor profile is as promised--heavy grapefruit, orange, mango, and lemon colliding with funk and vegetable to build a way-too-easy-to-drink DIPA that sneaks up on you with a fresh, sharp citric bite.... Michael was right to push this into my hand, and three years later, it still makes a pleasant impression....

 

Quite clear amber brew with plenty of foam in the tall Blanche de Chambly glass. Intense flavors fueled by the citrus peel as well as the hops. Orange, tangerine, and grapefruit zest flavors. Really sharp and on the acidic side, though the powerful citrus taste goes well with it. I don't get the vanilla business but at least I don't taste it.

Rather hot with citrus peel and alcohol, but with care, quite sippable. Quite interesting, but dialed up to 11. From the 16 oz can shipped from Best Damn in San Diego. New label is luscious pastel lime and orange.

 

Canned on 4-2-20.

A - Hazy dark orange color with some slight haze and frothy white lacing that's pretty sticky on the sides of the glass.

S - Apricot, peach, and orange jumps out of the glass.

T - Orange, peach, orange cream, apricot, and citrus from start to finish with some slight acidity. Finishes on the sweeter side, more like a milkshake style of IPA. Finishes with a nice lingering resinous orange that builds momentum in a good way coating the mouth.

M - Thick and pillowy soft.

O - A nice and easy drinking D-IPA from the Separatist.

 

 

 

 

Traded for this a while ago, as the date on the bottom of the can read 6/12/17. Of course, this was old and in my basement stash for a while but it poured nicely and tasted relatively good when I poured it out tonight. The orange and vanilla gave this a dessert feel but there was enough of a hop presence and plenty of alcohol to make this a true American Imperial IPA, even though nothing in particular was noteworthy here...

Not a bad pour to this as the liquid was a muted bronze with a decent amount of light coming through around the edges. Plenty of head topped this off and the lacing was mostly in the form of a thin collar and a thin but bold ring about 1/4 of the way down my pint glass,. Not a lot of sediment in the liquid either, which was good given this beer's age! Deep orange, sweet nectar, vanilla cream, and earthy hops in the muted nose as they emerged more in the taste - especially as this fully warmed up! Tropical, floral, and dank, this took a while to quaff as it needed a chaser of water at the end to fully down. Hints of potpourri and deep pine came through before I finished this out as the end result was a beer that was multifaceted but not quite cohesive with it's end result.

Plenty of booze here and the carbonation wasn't bad either, although a bit more would have been nice in order to keep this fresh and lively. If you like a good American Imperial IPA with facets and depth to it, this may be one to try but with so many other choices for this style, this might not be the best one to reach for. Serviceable in the end with just a bit of refinement needed to take this to the next level...