Rotary Chaos
Ten Bends Beer

 

 

 

 

 

Picked this up recently at Gary's in Wayne as this was the first beer that I ever had from Ten Bands. While this looked, felt, and tasted like a New England IPA, this did not measure up to the better examples of the style that are more readily available in this neck of the woods. This was fine to relax to but the flavor never really kicked in throughout my session, even as this fully warmed up.

The pour to this was decent as the liquid was a hazy, deep yellow with quite a bit of sediment settling at the bottom of my glass. Plenty of fluffy head and a ton of deep, layered lacing down the side of my pint glass was quite pleasing as thin rings could be discerned in the middle of it. Lots of melon, lemon, herbal, and floral notes in the nose as the taste was just as light and tangy. Some grass and a slick, juicy mouthfeel made this go down easy but the malt was mostly basic with some dough giving this beer the body that it desperately needed. Elderflower and a hint of the outdoors emerged in the aftertaste as the carbonation was on par with the flavor profile of this beer.

Not a lot of booze here as this nearly felt like a Pale Ale rather than an IPA. Couldn't read what was on the bottom of the can either as the date was compressed near the edge. I wish the sediment at the bottom hadn't been so chunky although there wasn't much floating in the liquid itself. Regardless of that, this was a bit of chaos indeed and worth a go once, just to check this brewery off of my proverbial list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contract brewed in NY - no package or best by date on the can.
Murky, butterscotch yellow with good head retention and cling.
Aroma is mildly malty with a bit of herbal hop. Faint lemon pound cake notes.
The flavor is weak and soapy to me. Lacks malt and grain depth and offers little in unique hop flavors.
Some solid pale ale bitterness and a pale ale abv, no character or balance to the tinny hop bite.
The body is thin and the finish is dry but leaves a nice hop aftertaste.
It's a decent little beer ( that's not a compliment) but uninteresting and not an India Pale Ale by most standards.

This one pours a soft looking hazy yellow color, with a small head, and lots of lacing.

This smells like orange, lemon, citrus, grassiness, and weed.

This feels like a pretty prototypical Vermont-style IPA, with a big juiciness accompanied by a pleasant and present bitterness. It's got a pithy and grassy bitterness with a sweet and juicy hop character.

This is light bodied, crisp, and pretty clean, with a slightly lingering bitterness.

Ten Bends is fairly underrated as VT breweries go - I've enjoyed nearly everything I've tried from them.

 

A: The beer is very hazy to cloudy whitish yellow in color. It poured with a finger high white head that left lots of lacing down the sides of the glass.
S: Moderate aromas of gooseberries and lime are present in the nose.
T: The taste follows the smell and has flavors of gooseberries and lime. No bitterness is perceptible.
M: It feels light- to medium-bodied and very juicy on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This New England IPA is packed with lots of aromas and flavors of gooseberries and lime.

Serving type: can

Canned 7/14/20
Pours a smaller fizzy head with almost no retention, no lacing, very hazy cloudy orange-peach color

Nose starts quite pithy with doughy malt, a bit of citrus and tropical notes, grapefruit, a little mango, but all very light

Taste brings some citrus again, a little mango and generic tropical but light, a little tangerine and orange, doughy creamy malt, pithy, flaked proteins and a little water softening minerals again,

Mouth is med to a bit lighter bod, creamy, med to lighter foamy carb

Overall meh, not a great beer, way too light on just about everything