Troubled Waters
Apex Brewing

Loving that the NE-IPA style's come to Alberta, if more come here I wont have to brew my own quite as much :) Smells of oranges, grapefruit, pineapple, etc. Tastes of peach and basil in lemonade. Tons of citrus and tropical fruit but balanced well with a great mouthfeel (though a bit more chewiness wouldnt hurt) Cheers!

Oh me oh my. I was lucky enough to get a growler of this liquid gold at Little Guy Liquor in Sherwood Park (big props to Mike and his friendly, knowledgable staff - their dedication to Alberta beer is admirable.) This is cloudy, floral, fruity and magical beer. The collaboration between three of my favorite breweries is exactly what I hoped it would be. I never thought I would feel that a $21 growler fill was worth it, but I guess I have to eat my words.

 

1L howler from Sherbrooke Liquor store. Thanks be to Smilin' Jay, and his awesome fill levels, and not to mention cool tag chicanery! Oh, and the beer - it is a collaboration amongst Bench Creek, Blindman, and Troubled Monk, to create a (still) trendy American NE-style DIPA.

This beer pours a murky, hard to see through medium golden 'yellow' colour, with three fingers of puffy, rocky, and somewhat bubbly off-white head, which leaves some layered sandwich cloud form lace around the glass as it lazily seeps away.

It smells of pungent, and sort of dank pine resin, robust domestic (lemon and grapefruit) and tropical (blood and mandarin orange) citrus flesh, gritty and grainy caramel malt, a testy hard water flintiness, subtle earthy yeasty notes, and some further leafy, weedy, and gently perfumed floral green hop bitters. The taste is fresh-squeezed (sorry, Deschutes) orange juice, generic grapefruit pith, grainy and bready caramel malt, mixed verdant bitters, wet stone paths after a Spring rainstorm, further muddled tropical fruit notes, and only the slightest suggestion of the 16-proof wowee sauce measure.

The carbonation is adequate in its generally just supportive frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and more or less smooth (if not a tad creamy), as these hops are not the hops you're looking for, officer. It finishes off-dry, the juicy citrus, pleasant as peach (sorry,again) pine, and parental-esque malt keeping things nicely on the level.

Overall - I have been to the metaphorical Vermont IPA mountaintop (and back) a few times before (Alchemist and Lawsons, FTR), and, looking back at that florid prose I wrote then, I am equally tempted to continue writing the same pap now, because, well, the situation calls for it - this meeting of Alberta craft brewing minds knows exactly what they're doing, and what they're doing is oh so bang-on, the sincerest form of flattery, and yeah - great, great stuff.

A: Juicy but attractive, opaque but not milky, bright golden, white head.

S: Overripe tropical fruits, pine, dank, passionfruit, a tiny bit of skunk. Really nice.

T: Soft, juicy, very low bitterness, echoing notes above.

M: Full bodied, fluffy, juicy.

A collaboration brew from Blindman, Troubled Monk, and Bench Creek, an Albertan take on the famed Vermont-style double IPA. It pours a turbid pineapple colour, with specks of milky sediment making their way into the light, and a thin ring of head topping the glass. Notes of orange ice cream and grapefruit. Bitterness from the hops is quickly overcome by juiciness. Thick appearance is deceived by its smoothness. Overall an enjoyable take on the style that stands among the top of this provinces offerings. Not something I could see myself camping out all day on a lawn chair to get a hold of but still really happy to have tried fresh on tap.