Super Session ISA
Blindman Brewing

While the look and smell of the beer are quite pleasant, it is let down by an extremely weak pallet which leaves it forgettable among the lightly bitter, citrus beers that have become so popular for summer months. I find the taste lacking in anything special or punchy enough to bring me back, and coupling that with a surprisingly low ABV, I can't see myself purchasing this again.

Cloudy and highly carbonated but head is thin and fades fast, but would be hard to do better. Tons of hop aroma, and fairly tasty, low one the malt but it is there with a nice dry finish, almost like some of the brut IPAs that are all the rage.

Soooooo.... if you like Blindman’s NE Pale, you should like this, too. It’s full of the same hazy fruity hoppy happiness. The lower ABV is only a mild distraction, and if our summer stays warm and lovely, they will sell a lot of this beer.

 

 

568ml ('A True Canadian Pint') can - this is apparently made in the New England style.

This beer pours a murky, dark golden apricot colour, with three flabby fingers of puffy, slightly rocky, and fizzy dirty white head, which leaves some random splattered and sudsy lace around the glass as it quickly dissipates.

It smells of juicy orange, red grapefruit, and lemon citrus flesh, gritty and grainy cereal malt, some hard water stoniness, a bit of indistinct tropical fruit, and some leafy, weedy, and dank piney green hop bitters. The taste is bready and crackery pale malt, mixed domestic citrus peel, a damp minerality, some still hard to parse exotic fruity notes, and more leafy, herbal, and wet piney verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate-buoying frothiness, the body a so-so medium weight, and generally smooth, with just a touch of hop acridity maybe taking things down a notch or so here. It finishes off-dry, the malt and frooty essences controlling the lingering state.

Overall - this is a fairly well-made version of the sub-style, with the NEIPA boxes all duly checked. As for the 'session' side of the equation, it is on the light side, but for such a low ABV, it doesn't come off as thin or weak, just normal, which is praise, I suppose. At any rate, certainly crushable, and without feeling the effect of having one's brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick, as the saying goes.