Spoonful Of Citrus
Brotherton Brewing Company

 

Pours mildly hazy yellow with a medium white head. Aroma is hoppy citrus. Taste follows with citrus notes and some dank hoppy notes. Feel is good, smooth and clean. Overall it's a nice IPA, easy drinking and pleasant.

 

 

Brotherton Brewing Company "Spoonful Of Citrus"
$10.99 / 32 fl. oz. growler @ Roger Wilco, Pennsauken, NJ

Notes via stream of consciousness: Wow, I hadn't realized the cost on this. $10.99 versus $7.99 for the Kane Sneak Box I got at the same time. That's 27% more, and this beer isn't rated nearly as highly. Oh well, lesson learned. It's poured a very hazy but not quite cloudy yellow gold beneath a frothy head of bright white that seems to be holding well but which has already dropped quite a bit. The aroma is - wait for it - citrusy! HaaHaa! It sure seems that there's more than just a spoonful in there though. I'd call it orange-like, and lemony, maybe even lime-like, with just a suggestion of grapefruit and then when you actually go to look for it it's not there. There is some light peach though, and perhaps mango or something tropical but it's really just citrusy and not "tropical" (yes, I know citrus fruits are "tropical" fruits, I'm talking about the other stuff like pineapple, guava, passionfruit, etc.). As you might have suspected, the flavor follows suit but it is a little more tropical with mango, peach, and perhaps a hint of pineapple. This is not to say that it's really any fuller, the boldness of the hop aroma seems to match that in the flavor, and they're on the same level, which is much better than when you have a beer with a great aroma and then the flavor is a let down, or vice versa. On the other hand it's not nearly as bold as some of the other "juicy hop bombs" on the market, and I'm not even sure I'd call it a "hop bomb", but it's definitely flavorful. Looking back there's some decent lacing left behind and I still have a thin, creamy surface covering that's almost completely full. The body is light-medium, but it's got some dextrin's to it. It's a basic sweet golden and lightly grainy malt that leaves it a touch sugary in the finish. I'm not sure what the bitterness level is, there's definitely some there in the finish as well, but it's not bold. The malt seems to linger a bit in the finish along with some chalky mineral. For carbonation I'd say it's crisp but fine-bubbled, it seems like completely natural carbonation around 2.5 volumes. Overall I'm not thrilled with it but it's solid - a solidly drinkable citrusy IPA. The hops are fairly unique and focused, rather than the sometimes scattered multi-flavored IPAs you can get (i.e. having pine, citrus, tropical, earthy/spicy, and leafy/tea-like notes all in one) and that gives it drinkability. It's refreshing as well. What's the alcohol content? 6.6% abv, that's not bad. American pale ales can go up to 6.2% so this isn't that much of a jump. The only drawback for me is the way the malty sugariness seems to linger in the finish along with the bitterness.