Palate Jack
American Solera

 

Pours a hazy gold with one pinky of ivory colored head. Nice lacing & above average head retention

S: Tropical fruits, limes, passion fruit once warm

T: Follows the nose, tangerine notes as well up front. Dryness, grapefruits & limes as this beer warms up, some green melon notes as well. Finishes with pomelo, green melon & dryness

MF: Medium body, slight carbonation, good balance

Drinkable, but glad I just got a single, would work better as a summer beer

 

Can from the Packie.
Hazy lemony gold with a fair amount of haze and a small frothy white head that shows great retention. Soft palette lots of orange and citrus with a bit of sweet bread to back it up. Pretty nice brew.

Tasted in a Spiegelau IPA glass from a one pint can on August 7, 2020.

Hazy OJ color with a finger of antique white head. Poor retention and modest lacing.

Tropical, hugely floral, lightly stanky aroma with passionfruit, coconut, guava, lime and straw.

Similar elements carry to the taste, but somewhat less powerful and less pungent. Lime and coconut stand out most, along with watermelon, a little weed and a clear passionfruit and guava element, but not as dialed up as the nose. Not too sweet, but no discernible bitterness, either.

Light to medium bodied with a sharp mineral water-type carbonation.

Very much a tropical fruit juice spritzer. Great showcase of the Sabro hops, but the coconut note is not my personal favorite.

 

Not sure what's up here but this is my first beer from American Solera, an OK based brewery who is currently (I guess) contract-brewing at a location in North Haven, CT. That's weird. What is even weirder, though, is I've only seen this pop up in NH stores, meaning it seems to have skipped MA entirely for the time being. That's odd because MA gets a lot of Twelve Percent Distro stuff, but perhaps this is COVID-related. *shakes fist at COVID* Anyway, this is an IPA with Sabro hops, advertised as being 0 IBU. So that means they didn't add any Sabro in the boil at all. Fun, and potentially not a good idea. I have a checkered history with this varietal, but perhaps this utilization of it will be the best yet. Who knows?

Pour is a nice-looking medium-orange with a creamy appearance to it. The initial decanting is highlighted by a massive, stately white head that retains for a long time before sinking to a solid finger and staying there. Not much lace, but the legs look really good, and perhaps more lacing will appear as I sip. (edit: yes, there is plenty, and it's nicely tiered but easily washed-away with subsequent sips)

The nose is chock-full of Sabro, a varietal I have some contentious past experiences with. It tends to be really coconut-forward, so if that is not an appreciable quality for you (as it sometimes is not for me, personally), it can be jarring and unusual, especially when other hops are used in tandem. I am happy to say, however, that holy hell does this smell great! Sure, there's a bunch of coconut, but I also get mango, papaya, tangerine, and some light apricot and/or melon elements that feel subtle and, yet, give off waves of unusual and complex aromatics. I have a feeling this will be a sleeper hit.

Yup, oh yes it is. On the palate, this totally jacks up the dials (is that a thing? I was just trying to make a pun with the beer name to be honest) on everything I'd want in a Sabro-focused IPA. And I'm really glad it's only 6.5%, as an aside... this would probably be way too thick and unnecessary as anything stronger than 7%, and I have to say I am totally loving the flavors of apricot, peach cobbler, mango flesh, melon rind, and refreshing coconut-like tropical-ness. The creamy feel helps this remain pretty drinkable and quenching... it's definitely almost like a piña colada in IPA form, and the general low bitterness certainly helps that whole characterization come to light. That said, I don't really believe this is ZERO IBU. I get some leafy hop character in the finish that any Joe Schmo off the street would certainly characterize as "bitter," so perhaps some liberties were taken with the definition of IBU here, but... whatever, this is good stuff, and has given me more hope for this varietal.

weird this stuff is being made on the east coast now, and weird to see this beer name, as i have gotten used to pallet jack from barley browns in this area, but this is amazing beer, one of the highlights of the weekend this weekend, a zero ibu hazy ipa with sabro hops, and a gorgeous expression of them, really about as pure and true as i have known them in any beer yet, and i have never been all that stoked on the hoppy beers from these guys, but this is monumentally good, almost shocking upon first taste. pale and light colored, some modest haze to it and an airy rising white head, looks pretty much the standard for the style but well refines as they go. aroma is awesome, but the flavor is at least twice as pungent, coconut flesh, kiwi fruit, green grape, blue cotton candy, meyer lemon, clementine, even the tart little blueberries you get intermixed in the carton with the bigger sweet ones. its delicious and it absolutely pops, some more pineapple and limey tropical tones as it warms, pink and orange starburst candy flavor too, but this isnt sweet, just feels a little that way from the oils in here. its cool to see zero ibu too, i wonder if thats because there is no hops in the kettle at all and its entirely dry hopped, which would be my guess, or if they engineered it some other way, i know these are trending this way anyway, but its cool to see it at zero in print, wow. amazing flavors and freshness here, which im sure is everything without any boil hops as preservative. pillowy feel, light for a hazy, perfect for these flavors, almost creamy as it warms. overall i was blown away, so was my wife, and i felt like the can was well worth the price. this is really something special, a cool idea and a lovely homage to sabro, id love to see the same thing done with sorachi ace next time!

 

Pours a murky and opaque straw color with a finger of head. The one is...

The flavor is juicy with various citrus notes. The finish initially seems mild until one gets about halfway down the glass. At that point, a pithy bitterness starts to assert itself.