Neon Dreams
Outcast Brewing

 

 

 

I was extremely excited to find this on the shelf of my favorite local bottle shop (hooray LA Liquor). This beer hit the nail on the head - amazing tropical fruit, super hazy, everything nicely pulled together. Absolutely worth seeking out!

 

473ml can - fantastic to see the first canned product from this hop-crazy brewer, which is apparently a 'double dry hopped New England Pale Ale' (exclusively with lupulin powder), with some oats thrown in to satisfy the haze craze.

This beer pours a murky, pale golden yellow colour, with four flabby fingers of puffy, rock, and mildly bubbly off-white head, which leaves some decent stringy cloud pattern lace around the glass as it slowly sinks away.

It smells of huge tropical fruit (mango, lychee, and pineapple), further mixed citrus rind notes, a bit of earthy yeastiness, grainy and bready pale malt, and more relatively understated leafy, weedy, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is pretty much in line with the aroma - mixed exotic fruit (papaya, mango, and kiwi), some lesser orange and white grapefruit peel, sort of peppery yeast, gritty and cereal-esque malt, and an additional herbal, leafy, and floral verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite active in its palate-enveloping frothiness, the body a solid medium weight, and mostly smooth, as those slick oats do their best to stave off that swirling hop acridity. It finishes off-dry, the lingering malt and still heady fruitiness acting like the bosses that they surely are.

Overall - another one knocked out of the park for Outcast, as this is super-hoppy, but without the expected level of bitterness. Add in the yeast and oat essences, and what we have here is a different kind of pale ale, one even a bit removed from the proclaimed NE style. Whatever, it's really, really good - I'm certainly glad that I picked up the whole 4-pack this time!