Lotus Vanilla IPA
Double Nickel Brewing Company

 

Thanks Nick for procuring. Extremely murky burnt orange body with a bubbly pearl white finger of head. Smell features a great combo with mosaic and sabro hops and vanilla. Sure lotus is there too, not as familiar with those. Get some cantaloupe, papaya, orange, and pine. Taste is about the same plus some mango and general melon. Let this warm, vanilla comes out more, letting the other flavors, especially the hops, play off it. Feel is sludgy but not too thick, bright, but turbid, slightly resinous.

 

Double Nickel Brewing Co. "Lotus"
16 fl. oz. can coded "11/26/1911:57:32". Sampled on 01/24/2020
$3.99 @ Roger Wilco, Pennsauken, NJ

Notes via stream of consciousness: Is this one of those "milkshake" beers? Am I supposed to shake the can first? Well let's see... nope, it's hazy but it's not muddy. It's amber in color beneath a big head of slightly yellowed off-white foam. The vanilla really comes through in the nose, and they used real vanilla beans, I wonder what that cost them. Wow, the vanilla flavor is fairly heavy in the taste as well. That's stunning! I'm not sure that I like it, but I'm kind of blown away by it. Let me see what else it says on the label... nothing about "natural flavors" or anything like that, just the hops. There's Lotus, obviously where the name comes from but I've never heard of them, and Sabro and Mosaic. I love Mosaic, and I've tasted several beers with Sabro in just the last few weeks - the jury's still out on that one. What I remember most about Sabro is that they give a coconut flavor, and I can certainly see that here. That works great, but there's also a woody note that usually bothers me. I get some of that here but it doesn't seem out of place and actually helps to dry it in my mind. Ahh, yes, Sabro also has a kind of minty note to it, and I'm finding some of that in the finish but it's not bad at all. If it was stronger it would throw the beer off for me but it works as it is. What I'm not finding here are the berries that I like so much coming from the Mosaic hops. Oh well, they'd probably throw it off balance as well. Yeah, I don't know about this beer. There's so much vanilla there, and that's really not my kind of thing. Well, at least in a beer with hops in it as well; if it was a dessert beer that'd be a different story. So what else am I finding here? Some orange, which is nice, it's like a creamsicle, and a hint of peach. In fact, I think if you had to pin one particular flavor and aroma on this beer it would be orange creamsicle. What else...mild mango... some pine, earth and spice in the finish. How strong is this because I don't think that spiciness is from alcohol. It's a straight eight. So, OK, that's great then. I get an alcoholic presence but it doesn't jump out at you. The malt is sweetish and a bit like crusty bread, but it's not a sweet beer; moderate bitterness though. AHHH, I'm an idiot. Someone I work with just told me the Lotus hops give you notes of orange and vanilla! That's got to be at least part of how they got that massive vanilla character. Well now I know, and to be honest, I can't think of a better use for those hops than what they've done here. Of course I'd have to actually get a hold of some Lotus and try them out, but knowing what I know now... you get the idea. Let me wrap this up; it's medium-full in body and quite creamy and smooth. It's kind of like a dessert beer, but not because of the extra hops. Or maybe not, maybe I should rethink that. Who's to say that a dessert beer shouldn't have hops in it?
Review #6,920