Crown And Crate w/ Madagascar Vanilla
Trillium Brewing Company

 

 

 

Appearance: Pours a cloudy honey color with a two finger head; nice stickage and a few shards

Smell: The Madagascar vanilla dominates, with the honey making noise as well; papaya and melon tones, in the mix

Taste: As in the aroma, the vanilla emerges first, with the lactose and honeyed sweetness joining with the papaya and the melon; moderate pithy grapefruit bitter tones, in the middle, but the finish really fades

Mouthfeel: Medium body with moderate carbonation

Overall; Maybe we are just trying a little too hard to be creative here but the vanilla and honey really take away from the IPA experience; I am not a big fan of pastry stouts and this makes me think we are heading in the direction of a pastry IPA

 

 

16oz can, Trillium snifter glass. Pours a pulpy golden body, slight copper hue, hazy with a one and half finger frothy white head, good retention, bit of lacing. Smell is mild honey sweetness, biscuit, grain, very light lactose, grapefruit and floral. Maybe a touch of vanilla. The flavour brings a fair bit of honey, light lactose. Big grapefruit and floral, a bit of vanilla sweetness lingering on the finish, mild seedy vanilla dark fruit as well. Medium fuller bodied, smooth and creamy, nice carbonation- soft with a bit of billowy vanilla and lactose. Nice mild floral bite to it as well. Very solid and tasty.

 

Mostly opaque yellow-orange with a short white head settling to a thin film.

The vanilla is there, but there is a lot more sharpness and spiciness than you'd expect...except that it's Trillium. It's acidic and sharply bitter with a dry swallow. The middle is made up of cracker, peppery grapefruit rind and mango skin. It's okay but not the creamsicle I was hoping for, and their hop saturation and acidity levels are getting painfully out of hand.

A soft froth fills the medium-light body before a chalky finish.

Trillium is just getting less and less dialed in lately.

 

 

Velvety smooth, the honey sits perfect.

L - oh boy, another Trill lactose IPA. Hopefully they learned something since Keytar Bear lmao. Pours quite a delightful milky yellow haze. Minimal head that quickly fizzes away like soda in classic Trillium fashion.

S - potent honey, acidic green melon, and pithy lemon. Zesty and grainy.

T - pineapple rind, zesty grapefruit peel, and a soft vanilla blanket coats a raw honey core, complete with that natural bitterness. Perhaps some papaya and orange cream candy. Hollow, grassy bitterness lingers.

F - nice thickness that avoids that overcarbonation Trillium is wont to do. Errs more toward the greener, underripe side of things which is unusual for a lactose IPA, but works here.

 

 

 

 

This is painful for me to do because I love Trillium. I've been a fan from the beginning. Whether you want to buy into the house yeast change, or the fact that one of the main brewers parted, that's up to you. The hue on this one is nice, but the cap fades to nothing in mere seconds, while the cloudy NEIPA look becomes somewhat watery. It smells like coriander, and it tastes like coriander. Yes, there are other things featured like the vanilla, honey, citrus, acai berry, pine, nutmeg (in spades) etc. I find the coriander note to be so off-putting that it makes me break out -- WINDOWS. If it was advertised as a Belgian, I'd be OK. However, it is not. The finish is metallic, way too thin, and not at all pleasing on the tongue. If you think I did this review to drive down Trillium scores, I beg you to look at all their other beers I've reviewed. This is an honest, and (I believe) factual opinion. Cheers.