Trash Can Banger
Departed Soles Brewing Co.

DATE: May 27, 2022... OCCASION: hitting the Memorial Day weekend with some things to celebrate... GLASSWARE: HopDevil nonick... pours from a fun Astros-retro jersey-inspired can a pulpy, chunky, sediment-rich cloud of hazy orange amber... cannot really tell what's going on in there once the beer is poured... its head is an off-white cream that settles to a half-finger of bubble clusters... an aromatic boom of citrus--orange, grapefruit, pineapple--meld with thick, dank resin to elicit Pavlovian drool... this doesn't smell like 5.4% ABV... flowery elements are also detectable, with light biscuit offering minimal balance... creamy, almost creamsicle mouthfeel, with the milk sugar playing its part without overwhelming the teeth or the tongue... playful and biting at the teeth, it finishes just as appropriately, not offending but lingering into the next sip... the dank aroma lays claim to its flavor profile, puckeringly pleasant and filling... lemon, orange, pineapple and grapefruit all mixed in a lactic salad that sits easy... it approaches a creamsicle, but deviates enough to hold its roots in the pale ale genre... super-juiced like a 1998 baseball, this is a powerful sipper of a beer, one that masquerades as a gimmick label but actually deserves its mainstream display... the incident is among the more insidious in baseball's history, so commemorating it with a quality beer is appropriate...

 

from the can:
IPA with milk sugar, dry hopped with 2017g/bbl of hops
(thanks to Rock for the can)

eyes...
unfiltered milky lemon, light in color but opaque in a way, white cap settles down quickly but does not evacuate the scene fully, lacing is solid, definitely an interesting looker

nose...
sometimes you see "dry hopped" and wind up utterly disappointed, not here man, not here, green stank stack just assaults the nose, and I am gladly overwhelmed, if chicks dug hops I would where this as cologne, super fresh green weed type of overture, this intense a whiff has not passed under this nose in some time, it reminds me of when DFH @ their bar in DE would put bowls of hops out and you roll them in your fingers, damn, damn... damn! there is some lemon zest and seltzer type pop in the back but this is all about the hops

taste etc...
light body, perfect carbonation to carry, drinks light with a touch heavier on the back end when the bitterness kicks in, this is pretty darn refreshing, and it does deliver in the hop flavor department (but not being overly bitter)

verdict?
not sure what it has to do with the cheatin' 'stros but this is a tasty IPA with an amazing hop nose and really nice hop flavor, all the while being quite approachable, a nice beer for a hop head on a hot day