RaineMaker
Flying Bike Cooperative Brewery

Poured from a crowler into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a dark red-orange with a two finger khaki head with great retention and nice lacing. Aroma of dark toasted and pale malt, citrus hops, coffee, lemon and a hint of cocoa. Flavor is pale and toasted malt, citrus hops, lemon, grapefruit, mild cocoa and a touch of coffee in the finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. This is a blend of Flying Bike's Rainemaker IPA and Youngstown Stout and has flavor characteristics of both styles. I should have tried both alone to see how they fit together, this is a blind taste of how the combination works. This really reminds me of a Cascade dark ale, which is a style that melds toasty stout malt with IPAs malt and hops, so it makes sense. This is a true blend; I tried a taster at the brewery and the server poured a little from each tap into the glass. Not sure how the crowlers were made, but likely the same way. I'd say that my taster had more stout character and the crowler is dominated by the IPA portion. CDAs have always appealed to me and this does too. The combination of dark malts in a hoppy IPA works quite well. I think I'd lean a bit more to a more aggressive stout component, but I liked this a lot, as much as most CDAs I've had. The hops have good Citra character with good bitterness in the finish and the malt supports the flavors. This is a blend I would get again and I'd be interested in trying different percentages of the base beers. Flavorful, nice looking and refreshing.