Hoperator
Gruff Brewing

I had this beer on-tap in an IPA glass at the brewery.

Appearance: medium orange hue with a light-to-moderate haze and finger of ivory foam atop.

Smell: moderately sweet malt aroma with a rather minty hop character. It’s not too bad.

Taste: moderately sweet and toasty malt with a citrus-rindey hop character. On the bitter side for a beer billed as a hazy. It’s decent, but not my favorite.

Mouthfeel: medium body with a pretty good carbonation and creaminess.

Overall: this one is a bit on the rough side for me — not bad, necessarily, but not really attuned to my taste.

Somewhat hazy amber brew with plenty of foam in the Kasteel chalice. This is quite dry with a lighter load of hops. Slight aroma of autumn leaves with a touch of citrus. Slushy on the tongue with pleasing carbonation is the nice feature. Not really fruity at all, the taste is more mineral and piney. Resiny aftertaste with modest bitterness, more astringent than bitter. A highly drinkable quaff that makes for a different sort of Pale Ale. From the 12 oz can; no apparent date.

12oz can courtesy of BBThunderbolt. No freshness date, but "Say Hi To Your Dog For Me" was stamped on the bottom. I wish there had also been a date, but it's hard for me to not want to get behind that phrase. According to untapped, it is a hazy pale ale, so I shall rate accordingly.

Poured into the glass, it was an opaque orange-yellow-amber color, with a big, creamy off-white head that took it's time dying down and left lots of lace behind.

Fruity and juicy hop aroma. Slightly crackery malt aroma as well, but that's very low in the mix.

More brightly juicy in the taste than in the nose. Flavors of mango and pineapple. A little pineapply hoppy flavor goes a long ways with me, and I'm happy to say it is restrained here and kept in balance with mango and citrusy aspects. Again, the malts are pretty thin on the ground in the taste, just like in the smell.

The flake oats are keeping the mouth feel soft and creamy.

As hazy parallels go, this is a nice one. I could see myself having several of these. It's very well balanced. My first from Gruff wasn't bad at all. Thanks, terry!