Demo Tape Thirteen: Local Scene IPA
Exhibit 'A' Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

Murky dark orange juice color with an exceptionally fast dissipating finger of off white head. No lacing.

Tropical fruit, vanilla and butterscotch in the nose. These continue to the taste with a slight herbal edge and light bitterness that prevent it from being overly sweet.

Light to medium bodied with strong prickliness in the feel.

The butterscotch is definitely different, but it's drinkable. 7/31/17 canned on date, straight from brewery cooler.

Unsweetened white grapefruit juice, melon, stone fruits and pine. Oat malt profile. Smooth feel. Medium bodied. Bitter on the back end but overall fairly balanced. Not bad.

Can stamped 07/31/17

Cloudy orange juice with a brief creamy white layer that disolves to a fine surface covering. Aromas of peach, apricot, lemon, and warm biscuits. Continued stone fruit in the flavor along with fig, honey, and tangerine. Quite a nice, satisfying, creamy/fruity flavor. Creamy, frothy, dry feel. Nice.

 

 

 

One of my favorite new NE breweries.
Singular approach to brewing.
Pours a golden copper color with a 2F head in a Spiegelau glass.
Wonderful turbid. Possibly one of the most turbid beers I've seen in a while.

Aroma: creamy! Not sure where this comes from, earthy, tropical fruit.

Very smooth for an IPA, not much carbonation.

Earthy, tropical fruit taste,

Overall an unusual beer from an unusual brewer. Every one of theirs stands out as being trés different. Great to see the local malt and hops! New England is now legendary beer country.

Best at 48° plus for appreciating this beer.

 

16 oz. can dated 7/31/17

Pours cloudy opaque gold with a dissipating frothy white foam head. Smells like peach, apricot, melon, some grapefruit, orange citrus, bready caramelized malt, with dank floral resinous earthy herbal grass. Tastes like peaches, apricot, melon, grapefruit, orange citrus, bready caramelized malt, with spicy dank floral resinous earthy herbal grassy pine. Feels medium bodied, creamy with moderate carbonation. Overall a nice IPA.

I've enjoyed most of the Demo Tape stuff I've had from Exhibit A, although overall I find their beer to be somewhat hit-or-miss. I will say they make one of the best kölsch style ales I've ever had (Goody Two Shoes), though, so that's definitely an excellent feather in their cap. Anyway, on to this one. Demo Tape 13 features local hops (Rakau and Nugget) grown in Northfield, MA and flaked barley from Valley Malt in Hadley, MA. The can also states that it features Halcyon barley and golden naked oats as well. Seems like the recipe for a light, bright and fruity/piney pale ale!

Pours a turbid deep orange-yellow color with a thin and delicate head that sinks to just about a quarter-finger after a few minutes in my glass. Even a hard pour barely produces much head here, and, though the color is beautiful, the turbidity combined with the lack of head production leaves this looking slightly static and flat. The body of the beer is so opaque it almost seems to consume light... if held up to a lamp, for instance, it actually looks like a much darker and higher SRM beer. Strange pour with some good qualities... but it's mostly dingy and ugly, in my opinion. I really enjoy when breweries nail the turbid appearance correctly, but the lack of lace and head here hurts it.

The nose is very apricot/peach forward which makes sense as Rakau is known for these elements. Chalky yeast, slight diacetyl and biscuity English malts. Some pine resin and grapefruit pith along with satsuma orange, tangerine and rose-like floral notes. Complex and very unique, but I don't like the buttery diacetyl note. I have picked it up from Hair Raiser in nearly every batch I've tried, and even though this is quite clearly not the same beer, I feel it could be something about the yeast these guys use.

Flavor seems to very heavily lean on the unique hop combination here. The Rakau hops provide a pleasant tropical and stone fruit flavor, reminding me of apricot preserves or peach jelly crossed with lighter suggestions of pineapple or even mango, and the resinous/floral hit of Nugget comes across towards the finish alongside a stiff and palate-coating bitterness. The malt backbone here is a little heavy-handed and leaves this beer slightly sweeter and dustier than expected in the mid-palate. I got used to this aspect about halfway through my can, but it has to be said. The way this transitions from the juicy/sweet/naked oat-forward middle to a strikingly bitter halt in the finish is a little too sharp of a transformation to me. The carbonation here is also, as expected from the uneventful pour, a little too dull to get my attention. Overall, this could be taken back to the drawing board for sure, but it's also part of a one-off experimental series and, thus, I don't think it will be. That said, this certainly could have a solid audience in the current NEIPA/similar beer scene, but it's not one of my favorites by any means.

Best low ABV super hoppy IPA I've had. That is all. Oh, and for you turbidity fans, it looks like Headroom.