The Sun Viking
81Bay Brewing

Look: It pours yellow and quite clear. It has a white head with excellent head retention.

Smell: Tropical fruit aromas to start with mango, tangerine, and herbs.

Taste: A blend of mango and tangerine lead the flavors. There are herbal elements in support with pine.

Feel: It has a medium body with a bitter finish, but little harshness.

Overall, the hops combination works with makes the beer enjoyable.

 

 

 

 

81Bay Brewing "Sun Viking"
16 fl. oz. can, "CANNED ON 09/17/2020 11:49" and sampled on 12/24/2020
$4.09 @ ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, Wildwood, FL

Notes via stream of consciousness: So what is this? It's an IPA, I get that, but what kind? I guess I'll just have to figure it out. It's poured a very hazy golden colored body beneath a short head of bright white foam. The aroma is a little odd, smelling something like roofing tar. Let me try that again... well I got less roofing tar that time, but also a touch of bell pepper seeds. Once more... yeah, I don't know what that odd note is, but now I'm getting more citrus, some other tropical fruits, and a touch of pine. On to the flavor... OK, I've got that roofing tar note figured out now because I can now see that it's part of the pine that I'm finding in the flavor. When I say resinous in a review I'm referring to either hops resins, or pine resins, and in this case it's pine resins. Before I go any further I'm going to go open up another beer that I'm familiar with and taste it just to see if perhaps my olfactory senses are just off - - - OK, so no, I cracked open a Stella Artois and found it exactly as I normally do, so I feel safe to continue on, especially as the flavor is coming across much better than the aroma. So, back to the taste... I'm getting mango, apricot, lemon, tangerine, pineapple, and pine, pretty much in that order. The beer has warmed and I'm now getting even more of the tropical fruits in the aroma but that unusual pine resin note is still there. I'm going to assume that it's just the hops, and perhaps the amount of time they were in the fermenter (I'm assuming it was dry hopped). A short period of time will usually give you more of the "dank" resinous quality of the hops, and an extended period of time can also bring that back as well. I'm not sure if that's the case here, or if perhaps it's just the crop year/batch itself. Back to the taste, it's got a basic, grainy, and maybe even wheaty malt to it. It's sweetish but far from sweet, and balanced by a firm bitterness that brings it to a dry conclusion. Pine, lemon, and grassiness linger. In the mouth it's medium bodied and a little bit zesty and effervescent with a fine-bubbled carbonation. So what to make of the Sun Viking? It's OK but nothing spectacular. I wouldn't turn it down on a hot day, but I also don't see myself buying it again.
Review #7,134

 

 

 

Poured a cloudy orange-gold body with minimal head and lace. The aroma is earthy, grassy, with faint citric hops as well. Smooth, clean, light to medium body, with minimal bitterness from minor citric notes as well as a grapefruit sweetness and a little malt heft.

 

 

 

 

 

A: The beer is slightly hazy yellowish amber in color and has a moderate amount of visible carbonation. It poured with a finger high frothy white head that has good retention properties and left a short head covering the surface and lots of lacing down the sides of the glass.
S: Light to moderate aromas of grapefruit and tangerine hops are present in the nose.
T: The taste has flavors of grapefruit hops with notes of tangerine citrus and hints of caramel malts. There is a light to moderate amount of bitterness.
M: It feels medium-bodied and a little crisp on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: The aromas and flavors of tangerine hops in this beer added a little complexity to the smell and taste.

Serving type: can

 

16 oz can BIF box can dated 6/18/18.

Poured into Ellipsis glass.

Hazy honey golden color with a tall fluffy head of 2 fingers, receding to 1/2 finger and leaving a ton of webby lace on the sides of the glass.

Nice fresh aromas of grapefruit and pine, orange juice and orange peel, and crisp malt with slight grass. Very clean aromas.

Flavor is a little faded but not too bad; has a nice hoppy bite in the form of fresh lemon and grapefruit rind, slight crisp pilsner malt, and lingering stabbings of pine and grass. Some slight orange pith and grapefruit peel also lingers on afterwards.

The feel is impeccably clean. Really crisp and smooth.

Overall the greatest factor of this beer is its cleanliness. It drinks more like a hoppy pilsner than an IPA, but make no mistake it's flavorful - just a more rind-like flavorful rather than juiciness. I'd probably have it again.

Impulse buy because it's fresh (8/16) and Sun Viking sounds like beached white whales on pier 60. No information about the beer on the can, so guessing the brewery is young / has a social media intern at most for a marketing department.

Pours a light amber, fluffy white head, good retention. Smell: lemon rind, resin, papaya-ish note, notes of grass and mango puree. Taste: lemon creamsicle, mildly grassy and spicy, mango note. Kind of watery, just completely falls apart mid-sip. Powdery and bitter finish. This would have been good if it had any body.

Edit: Next can was less creamsicle, more medicinal and piney, but also less clarity and more body. Yeah, if it's going to vary this much can to can you probably need QC before you're shipping 200 miles way but it has promise!