Perception is Reality
Magnify Brewing Company

 

Decanted from a 16 oz (473 ml) can into a snifter glass; canned 04/06/21.
A: Pours a cloudy, golden (orange) color with a one finger, white head, solid retention, and rings of complex lacing.
S: Aroma, but subtly so, with lime and nectarine strongest in the setting of a caramel core.
T: More semisweet than semidry. Flavors a melange of the aromas, but with strong lime zest, and with strong, almost minty well, bitterness.
M: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Zesty.
O: A real pick me up: complex, flavorful, and fun.

 

1/6/21....Cloudy yellow gold with a tony head of white foam. Just enough to maintain some depth. Lemon influenced grassy nose. Very fresh. Tasty lemon citrus open, backed w/ some malt body and a minty cut grass bitter. Juicy too. Real nice.

 

 

On draught at the brewery. An opaque, lemon-orange color with a foamy, milk-white cap and lots of soapy lacing inside the glass. A rather subdued nose with lemon peel, tangerine, melon, and some floral hops. The taste opens dry and bitter with lemon and grapefruit rind, as well as hints of tangerine, and crackery malt background. There is an interesting earthiness that nicely balances the tart, bitter citrus. This ale is lite, crisp, and well-carbonated, and it drinks easily at 6.5% ABV. Overall, despite the promise of its name, Perception is Reality is not one of Magnify's best NEIPAs but it is enjoyable and thirst-quenching.

 

 

The head fills a good quarter of the glass during the pour, settles into a thick two-finger soufflé, bright white with wispy but longlasting lacing. Opaque yellow liquid, has a little glow to it, substantial amount of tiny, active bubbles. The nose comes off more as a puncher than boxer, seems more broad than deep, highlighting a pungent herbaceous element verging on skunk weed, peppery, the peach, mango, apricot fruit shoved to the side, fresh forest floor matter, not getting a sustained citrus presence. Light-bodied, strong carbonated bite at first then releases and feels smooth into the finish. Dry in texture, doesn’t soak deep into the palate. Blood orange pith, cracker to biscuit, dried honey, curiously nowhere as near as skunky as the nose. Apricot, green melon, peach fruit of moderate sweetness. Everything here seems light of touch, almost mannered with an intentionally neutral aspect. While not resonating with me per se, it should find an appreciative audience.

 

 

 

Cloudy, murky light-orange with three fingers of off-white head. Good retention. Thick lacing.

Spicy pine, light orange and melon, and some very slight nuttiness in the nose.

Peppery and fruity flavors carry to the taste, with some crackery malt and pithy bitterness in the finish, again with just a hint of nuttiness. Other than the nuttiness, the flavors are good for what they are, but seem a tad watered down.

Medium bodied and very creamy feeling with just enough carbonation.

I was hoping for some old-school flavors when I first read the hope profile, but this reminds me more of some of those early NEIPAs with the watery backbones. It’s drinkable, but not something I’d seek out again.

 

 

 

 

My first beer from Magnify, and it seems to be a pretty well-received one. Jeez, we're getting a lot of breweries I've only heard of via like... WBAYDN and NBS threads around my area of MA recently, huh? That's super exciting. I mean, I finally got to have a few Carton beers recently, and now Magnify is showing up. This is a single IPA hopped with some standby, stalwart American hops... Simcoe, Centennial, and Chinook in a juicy, NEIPA-ish recipe? Let's see how it goes!

Pours a nearly-opaque light amber/golden color with an orange-esque hue to it. Nice buildup of foam leading to approximately three fingers of head... very nice looking. This eventually sinks down to about a finger-and-a-half, but it leaves in its wake some excellent, tiered, consistent lace and seems to have some good legs as well. Great looking stuff if you're into hazy IPAs.

The nose, before I read into what hops are primarily utilized, led me to believe this would have some El Dorado or Azacca in it... it has that interesting yet subtle light orchard fruit/light tropical note combined with a helping of aggressive pungent pine. I should've known from that element that Simcoe played a part, but Chinook feels very characteristic of the spruce-y spice here as well. Some grapefruit and other citrusy notes, but this has a lot of pine and resin. Slight yeast note and a tiny, appreciable sulfur character that I'm fine with. Overall, a fine smelling NEIPA, but it doesn't quite reach the higher echelons.

Taste is pineapple and orange with a slight tinge of catty guava and light pine resin toward the finish. Like in the nose, this has a yeasty dominance to it; a bit chalky and aspirin-y, but not bad by any means. It just doesn't taste like a clean IPA whatsoever, and considering it's on BA as an American IPA and not an NEIPA, I'm a bit confused. That said, I like what's going on here for the most part, even though it's not knocking my proverbial socks off. A little bit of a weird entry for Magnify into our little corner of the country, but I guess it's also maybe the safest bet? Carbonation is middling but fine enough to coat the palate without intruding, and the finish and general character is medium bodied and finely-tuned, luckily. A pretty good hazy IPA, but not one that stands out from the crowd despite the more old-school hop choices.