Hazy IPA
Anderson Craft Ales

355 mL can from a six-pack purchased at the LCBO; dated Nov 26 2019 and served barely chilled.

Pours a turbid, translucent lemondrop yellow colour, sporting roughly one finger of soapy, frothy white head that fizzles off in less than two minutes' time. A thin collar of foam remains, with a decent swath of lace having been thrown up against the glass; looks like a prototypical NEIPA to me. The nose is juicy, as you'd expect, and a tad pithy, too - I'm getting pineapple, orange, grapefruit and passion fruit, with hints of mango, melon and stone fruit. Works for me.

It's a fairly solid IPA: bready malts and oat sweetness serve as the backdrop, with notes of grapefruit, orange, pineapple, melon and apricot exciting the taste buds by mid-sip. Slightly pithy on the back end, with more of a hop acidity lingering instead of bitterness. The one issue I'll bring up is that there does seem to be a (admittedly mild) touch of buttery flavour towards the finish - it's not overwhelming, but I'm finding it hard to ignore, as it distracts from the otherwise enjoyable hop profile. Medium-full in body, with moderate carbonation and a smooth, fulfilling texture, and reasonable drinkability given its strength.

Final Grade: 3.75, eking out a B+. It's a bit of a shame - if it weren't for that buttery quality, Anderson's Hazy IPA might've scored quite a bit higher. But the truth is that that's exactly the sort of rookie mistake that a 3 1/2 year old brewery shouldn't be making - and since this six-pack is barely two weeks old, I doubt it's a freshness and/or storage issue. Then again, it wasn't a severe enough flaw to really ruin the experience: I finished my serving easily enough, so it's something I'll need to revisit at some point in the future. Worth trying, but I think I'd take Anderson's regular IPA over this.