Cherry Cobbler Double Milkshake IPA
Untitled Art

look: hazy red, with a plush pink head on the pour.
smell: Lightly tart, vanilla sweet.
taste: much like the nose. Not exactly cherry cobbler but certainly fruity and sweet.

 

 

16 ounce can into tulip glass, canned on 8/22/2019. Pours opaquely hazy deep ruby red/orange/copper color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense and fluffy off white head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty foamy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of big lightly tart/tangy red cherries, fruit skin/pits, mandarin orange juice, red grapefruit, lemon, lime, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, honeydew melon, guava, blueberry, gooseberry, citrus peel/zest, cinnamon, light peppercorn/pine, vanilla, cream, graham cracker, wheat, biscuit dough, light honey/toast, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of cherries, citrus/fruity/tropical/light earthy hops, lactose, cinnamon, and bready malt notes; with big strength. Taste of big lightly tart/tangy red cherries, fruit skin/pits, mandarin orange juice, red grapefruit, lemon, lime, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, honeydew melon, guava, blueberry, gooseberry, citrus peel/zest, cinnamon, light peppercorn/pine, vanilla, cream, graham cracker, wheat, biscuit dough, light honey/toast, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness. Light pine, citrus peel/zest, herbal, floral, grassy, peppery bitterness; and fruit tang/tartness on the finish. Lingering notes of tart/tangy red cherries, fruit skin/pits, mandarin orange juice, red grapefruit, lemon, lime, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, honeydew melon, guava, blueberry, gooseberry, citrus peel/zest, cinnamon, light peppercorn/pine, vanilla, cream, graham cracker, wheat, biscuit dough, light honey/toast, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness on the finish for a while. Awesome complexity, robustness, and balance of cherries, citrus/fruity/tropical/light earthy hops, lactose, cinnamon, and bready malt flavors; with a great malt/bitterness and tart/tangy fruit balance; with no cloying/astringent flavors after the finish. Lightly increasing dryness from lingering bitterness and tart/tangy fruit. Medium carbonation and medium-full body; with a very smooth, creamy/silky/bready/grainy, fairly sticky/acidic/tangy/tannic, and lightly resinous mouthfeel that is great. Mild increasing warmth of 9% after the finish. Overall this is an awesome fruited milkshake DIPA. All around awesome complexity, robustness, and balance of cherries, citrus/fruity/tropical/light earthy hops, lactose, cinnamon, and bready malt flavors; very smooth and dangerously easy to drink for the big ABV, with the mellowly bitter/tart/tangy/drying finish; great soft feel for the ABV. Feels like Citra/Mosaic. Super juicy hops/fruit, with light dank/earthy notes; with a perfectly balanced lactose, and wheat/oat/malt backbone. Light residual sweetness with lingering dryness. A really enjoyable offering, and outstanding experimental style example. Tastes just like the dessert all the way through.

 

 

Modest head production and retention. Surprising body, certainly opaque in the thicker portions of the glass, but fairly clear on the edges. Small amounts of unattractive white floaties. Body is a reddish-brown in color.

With your eyes closed, this aroma is somewhat muted, and not particularly reminiscent of cherries, save some cherry pit aroma. Overripe peaches, raspberries, cream, brown sugar, caramel, pine, bark, orange, grapefruit, pinot noir. There's not a complete absence of cherry notes, but rather, they don't come across as cleanly cherry, instead giving impressions of multiple other red fruit.

Immediately sweet and tart on the palate, but balanced with fairly traditional IPA tones - as implied by the nose. Mid-way through the sip, dough and cherry tones start to emerge, that really exert their prominence on the finish - and indeed, giving a pretty remarkable impression of cherry cobbler.

It's a fairly bipolar beer: for about half of the sip, it comes across as a confused, muddled mess of an IPA, with caramel malt blending with hop tones of citrus, pine, and resin, all somehow mixed with slightly sweet, tart, and fruity tones. Yet, the second half of the sip really evokes the eponymous dessert. The overall result? Half OK, drinkable, not at all unpleasant IPA; half remarkable, interesting, unique milkshake IPA.

Very lively, with tons of sting, and somehow expands to fill the mouth. For a "milkshake" IPA, this is less pleasant than I'd prefer, as it prevents you from really savoring the brew as you need to - especially for a 9% ABV brew - whereas I'd prefer a softer, cleaner, milder feel, something that lets you really appreciate the desired aim of the brewers.

This is unlikely to make anyone a major fan of milkshake IPAs. As a massive fan of cherries (they are quite literally my favorite food), this hits the spot, but not as well as I would have hoped - and nowhere near as faithfully as Kriek Lambics hit the spot, to be honest. This brew would be absolutely fine on tap, and I wouldn't turn it down - nor do I regret purchasing a 4-pack - but I'm not sure what niche it truly fills.

 

 

Tasted in a Spiegelau IPA glass from a one pint can on August 30, 2019. Brewed in collaboration with The Full Pint. Not sure how they did it but this actually works.