Beach Freak
Black Bellows Brewing Company
- From:
- Black Bellows Brewing Company
- Ontario, Canada
- Style:
- Hazy Pale Ale
- ABV:
- 5.1%
- Score:
- +4 ratings needed
- Avg:
- 3.56 | pDev: 9.55%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 4
- Status:
- Active
- Rated:
- Dec 05, 2021
- Added:
- May 21, 2021
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 0
NO SCORE
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-
Beach Freak is a hazy, New England-style pale ale that’s dry hopped with Strata and Citra. Strata lends a strawberry flavour and Citra comes through as stone fruit and citrus. The combination is incredible! Although this beer is supremely hoppy, it lacks bitterness and is very easy drinking. Think tropical juice and refreshment for the year’s hottest days.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Reviewed by Pmicdee from Canada (ON)
3.68/5 rDev +3.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
3.68/5 rDev +3.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
Pours a hazy light gold colour with a thick fluffy head on top. Citrus and hops on the smell. Quite tropical and bitter on the taste, not unlike a hazy IPA. After a few sips, I do detect the advertised strawberry notes, but faintly. Smooth on the mouthfeel
Nov 6 2021
Nov 06, 2021Nov 6 2021
Reviewed by CAMRAhardliner from Canada (ON)
3.84/5 rDev +7.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
3.84/5 rDev +7.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
Pours milky straw with a chunky, long lasting head. Tropical fruit, apricot, pineapple, wet grains in the nose. Equal parts tropical fruit and sweet pale malts in the taste. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with full carbonation. Moderate bitterness and fruity hops in the long finish.
A nice APA that's on the malty side. Worth a try if you like them more balanced.
Sep 19, 2021A nice APA that's on the malty side. Worth a try if you like them more balanced.
Reviewed by TerryW from Canada (ON)
2.84/5 rDev -20.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 2.75 | overall: 2.75
2.84/5 rDev -20.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 2.75 | overall: 2.75
Good looking beer. Moderate head settles to full film. Lots of lace. Hazy honey gold brew. No real nose to the thing. On!y nominally hoppy, some sweetness, artificial mystery taste to the whole thing. Watery. Just a fail on a couple of levels, not recommended. Not offensive, but a, why bother sort of effort.
Jun 23, 2021
Reviewed by thehyperduck from Canada (ON)
3.75/5 rDev +5.3%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4
3.75/5 rDev +5.3%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4
473 mL can from the LCBO; dated May 10 2021 and served slightly chilled.
Pours a hazy pale yellow colour, capped with nearly one finger of creamy, foamy white head; within ninety seconds, it has wilted almost entirely, reduced to a thin, sudsy collar and some scant flecks of lacing - looks like your standard NE(I)PA. A bit wheaty on the nose, featuring understated fruity hop notes of melon, apricot, orange and dank weed.
A pretty good NEPA - it's got a grainy, bready wheat malt backbone, balanced by flavours of grapefruit, passion fruit and mango. There's even a hint of strawberry towards the finish, which has a touch of weediness outlasted by lingering hints of tropical & stone fruit. Medium in body, with generous carbonation that feels very prickly on the tongue, frothing up in the mouth a little bit with each sip - the contrast between that crisp bite and the smooth soft texture of the oats is interesting, at the very least, but I still found it over-carbonated. Still, it's light and refreshing for what it is, making it highly quaffable.
Final Grade: 3.75, eking out a B+. Black Bellows' Beach Freak is merely one of many Ontario-brewed New England Pale Ales that have hit shelves over the past month or so, as this seems to be the style du jour for spring and summer 2021. I've enjoyed the majority of them, but I haven't really *loved* any of them, and Freak fails to buck that trend. It's too bad... a lighter NEIPA does seem like something I should really like, but in practice I find them just as underwhelming as session IPAs. Give this one a try if you enjoy the style, but if you have a hate on for haze then you aren't missing much by giving it a pass.
Jun 08, 2021Pours a hazy pale yellow colour, capped with nearly one finger of creamy, foamy white head; within ninety seconds, it has wilted almost entirely, reduced to a thin, sudsy collar and some scant flecks of lacing - looks like your standard NE(I)PA. A bit wheaty on the nose, featuring understated fruity hop notes of melon, apricot, orange and dank weed.
A pretty good NEPA - it's got a grainy, bready wheat malt backbone, balanced by flavours of grapefruit, passion fruit and mango. There's even a hint of strawberry towards the finish, which has a touch of weediness outlasted by lingering hints of tropical & stone fruit. Medium in body, with generous carbonation that feels very prickly on the tongue, frothing up in the mouth a little bit with each sip - the contrast between that crisp bite and the smooth soft texture of the oats is interesting, at the very least, but I still found it over-carbonated. Still, it's light and refreshing for what it is, making it highly quaffable.
Final Grade: 3.75, eking out a B+. Black Bellows' Beach Freak is merely one of many Ontario-brewed New England Pale Ales that have hit shelves over the past month or so, as this seems to be the style du jour for spring and summer 2021. I've enjoyed the majority of them, but I haven't really *loved* any of them, and Freak fails to buck that trend. It's too bad... a lighter NEIPA does seem like something I should really like, but in practice I find them just as underwhelming as session IPAs. Give this one a try if you enjoy the style, but if you have a hate on for haze then you aren't missing much by giving it a pass.
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