Route 97
Brookeville Beer Farm

Poured from the can into a Spiegelau IPA glass.

A real nice deep orange bronze body color fills the glass, with quite a lot of beautiful clarity. Cloudy or NE turbid? Not a chance, but looking gorgeous as ever. Head is even a nice creation. Off white and possibly khaki yellow tinged, it is three fingers of nice creamy and fine filled bubbles, settling with a good island mountain sized top, and spotty lacing on the sides. Great looking beer either way.

Real nice nose. Solid hop forward nose, composed of a varied mix. First seems to be a real pleasant dank/earth quality, followed by hits of tropical juicy quality, but more of a gum drop than fruit sweetness. Light candy sweetness, almost like a taffy sort of malt caramel note mixing in nicely.

Palate seems to get the job done. Real nice mix of juiced flavors, that are amplified by a full body that seems rich, and even chewy to some extent. However, the mid palate seems to be a clash of hop flavors. Juiced faint fruit notes with a strong bitter earth component hit the mix at a full level. Thick pungent and perfume like aftertaste, hitting spicy to dank notes that sort of fight with each other. Some light orange makes an appearance, and some gummy like fruit.

There's some real neat flavors here, and well presented, but they sort of don’t really complement each other. There is still a very solid beer to be drunk here, but in the IPA realm there's a lot more to choose from.

 

16oz can into a tulip glass.

Look: Pours a hazy pale orange/gold. A thin white head of foam dissipates into a small ring, leaving some spotty, fine lacing behind.
Smell: Aromas of grapefruit, orange/tangerine, mango, pineapple, peach, melon, with a light note of earthy bitterness.
Taste: Follows the nose, heavy on the citrus and tropical fruit. Hoppy earthy pine is much more pronounced on the palate. Slight biscuity/bread malt flavor in there.
Feel: On the soft/smooth side of medium bodied, small bubbles and pretty low carbonation.
Overall: Nice IPA, beautiful juicy aroma and a nice bitter balance on the palate.

i've barely spent any time in connecticut in my life. why does this beer remind me of connecticut? what does a stonewall taste like? is there a taste for quaint? listen i'm no expert on anything. but i do like beer, and things that taste good. i was making some cheese quesadillas tonight and the pregrated kraft mozzarella had an expiration date of march 2020. it's freakin' october man how is cheese gonna last five months?! that is not right. and that's what drew me to pay $17.99 plus applicable maryland state taxes for a four pack of these ipas--there was the brew date and the canned date, printed right on the label. i appreciate that forthcomingness, and i appreciate that this beer was brewed more recently than the cheese that's currently sitting like a rock in my tummy. it's pretty darn good, i think! nothing exceptional. it's easier to describe it by what it lacks than what it has. it lacks: floral notes, overt hoppiness, and distinctness. but i'm still happy to be drinking it just the same, cuz life is pretty long and there's a lot of time to imbibe all of the bevvies.

Hazy gold, thin head, crap retention, spotty lace
Citrus and tropical hops, a bit of pine and dank
Flavor is more of the above
A little sticky, low carbonation
A completely Meh beer. I'm starting to wonder why I keep getting stuff from them

 

 

Not a NEIPA, especially in appearance but also taste.

 

Brewed on Nov 9th/Canned on Dec 13th.

Appearance is NOT a NEIPA. Hazy/unfiltered yes. Nice head. Aroma has some mild fruit hops but kinda muted. Taste is well balanced but kinda boring/bland and a touch flat. Feel is very soft so of all the NEIPA traits, only feel hits the mark really. Not sure I'd recommend this one. Very pedestrian/somewhat amateur in craft.