East Coast IPA
Russell Brewing Company

 

Look: Murky orange-straw color. Poured a light head that dropped back to a thin skiff across the surface. Very small amount of fine lacing.

Smell: Light fruit scent with a bit of barnyard and hops. Swirling the glass kicked up a more pungent barnyard and a light sweet floral.

Taste: Light bitters with a grassy-barnyard hop flavor. A little sweet. The aftertaste is mostly sweet and barnyard. A light bitter trails off at the end.

Feel: Slowly grows to a thick foam of small bubbles. The bubbles slowly disappear instead of joining into larger bubbles.

Overall: I'm getting a bit tired of the hops this year all smelling and tasting of barnyard instead of the florals from previous years. Do hops have distinct vintages like wine? Or is everybody buying cheaper hops?

 

As a Surrey Boy, I have to back my hometown breweries. Russel Brewing consistently makes me proud. For many years, I denied my Surrey heritage, but I embrace it and appreciate how it toughened me for real life. This hazy IPA brings me home. An East Coast IPA that exudes the wonders of juiced hops and blends of yeasty breads. A very good solid choice, flavourful and satisfying. A strong beer without alcohol taste. Hoppy but mild after taste. I like this beer!

Poured from a 473ml can.
This one is a very good take of the East Coast Hazy Style. Good hop bitterness not overpowered,
All in all a easy drinking East Coast IPA worth picking up a 4 pack.

 

473ml can - apparently there is a yeast strain named 'juice', from the East Coast. Of course there is, and it's employed here.

This beer pours a murky, medium banana yellow colour, with three fingers of puffy, somewhat rocky, and bubbly off-white head, which leaves some decent layered and streaky lace around the glass as it slowly and evenly subsides.

It smells of dank pine resin, a strong wet chalkiness, bready and grainy cereal malt, a hint of earthy yeastiness, and more leafy, weedy, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy pale malt, subtle domestic citrus rind, more stoney flintiness, kind of frooty yeast, and some wavering leafy, musty, and piney verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate-satisfying frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and generally smooth, as the hops keep their grubby little hands to themselves at this particular juncture. It finishes off-dry, the citrus and malt essences exhibiting the most lingering brio.

Overall - this one does a bang-up job of imitating the better offerings from the American northern Atlantic states. Nice and hoppy, but the bitterness levels are kept to a bare minimum. Crisp, and easy to throw back, without even a suggestion of the extra point of ABV. Worth checking out.