5% Tint
Spindletap Brewery

RB transfer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got a case of this during rona and it got me through the rough patch. Good stuff.

 

 

 

12 oz can (stamped “06/27/19”) poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass. Completely hazy pale yellow with a big, bubbly frothy head. Lime and tangerine with some pine. Light to medium body with bolder carbonation. Surprisingly full flavored for a newer IPA of only 5% - relatively balanced and satisfying.

 

 

12 fl oz cans run $10.99 USD per sixer at grocers in Austin, TX. Standard pull-tab cans with an orange label.

Canned 05/16/19. 5% ABV - I'm unclear how this is an IPA (though they call it a Session IPA on their website). No hop varietals are mentioned on the label.

A: Off white head ~6cm in height. Fades over about 7 minutes. Body is a hazy orange-yellow...pretty vibrant. No yeast/lees are visible within.

AROMA: Muted citrus juice (orange, tangerine, maybe subdued mango). A scintilla of coconut. Has an obvious tropical bend. Pale malts buoy the juicy hop aromatics, but it doesn't at all seem bitter or pungent hopwise.

Aromatic intensity is low.

TASTE & TEXTURE: Juicy in texture and taste, but lacking in terms of hop pungency. Carbonated orange juice comes to mind. Orange leads the citrus pack of flavours, with mango, tangerine, and maybe guava as distant seconds. Flirts with a coconut-like tropical flavour but never fully makes the leap. Pale malts disappear behind the citrusy juiciness of it, but it suffers from mild depth of a flavour in a style that demands more boldness.

Not piney, herbal, grassy, resinous, grapefruity, pithy, or oily. Hop profile leaves something to be desired; this is milder than many pale ales.

Texture wise, it's soft enough with an approachably smooth wet mouthfeel. Medium-bodied, refreshing, well-carbonated. There's nothing to knock here, but the texture doesn't amplify specific aspects of the taste or elevate the beer as a whole.

OVERALL: Best judged against pale ales not IPAs, and against them it still seems a bit dialed-down, failing to commit to its hop varietals or to bring needed pungency to the fore. Those after a vaguely tropical juicy pale ale with restrained bitterness will find this pleasant but not dazzling. I wouldn't pay $2-$3 more than Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for a sixer of this again, but Spindletap at least shows they're very cognizant of the current fixation on juicy hazy IPAs with this hum-ho pale ale marketed as an IPA.

Low C+ / ABOVE AVERAGE

Great IPA flavor on a sessionable beer. Pleasantly surprised.

 

Look: kinda hazy peach juice color
Smell: hoppy, juicy,
Taste: juicy (not the juiciest), pithe,