Blocks Of Light
Outer Range Brewing Co

 

 

 

16oz can. Poured out a slightly cloudy, golden orange color with a small, off-white head of foam. It left sudsy sheets of lace on the glass. It smelled of pineapple, guava, orange and sweet caramel. Nice tropical fruit taste with caramel, toffee and a sharp, piney bitterness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tall can direct from the source in Frisco, Co.

They said it was released about a week ago, and I believe em.

Fine looking NEIPA fully hazed pour, eggshell cap and leaving a bunch of fine sheeting on the glass.

Soft and ripe tropical fruit sniff.

Super tasty, with tropical fruits abounding, mango, pineapple, kiwi, lime…well crafted and quite delicious.

 

Undated can poured into a tulip. Guessing it’s somewhere in the range of 2 months old based on where it came from (Southern Grist 5th Anniversary Party) and the canning dates on most of the other beers that were made available.

Very pale yellow body, fully opaque and juicy looking -- like well-strained lemonade or pineapple juice. Full finger of soapy, creamy bright white head that holds form surprisingly well. Rings and splotches of lacing that's stickier than I would have thought given the ABV. The coloring isn't particularly noteworthy, but the head is fantastic and it's certainly juicy looking.

Big dose of damp grass and weedy greens right up front. Then citrus, pineapple, peach skin, and mango. Crackery malt, a little mineral or saline note, light earthy qualities, and some berry. The dankness picks up as the beer warms, with just a slightly green onion note. Fairly mild nose overall.

Whereas the nose outshined the tongue with the first Outer Range beer I tried (Pastels), here (IMO) the taste outshines the aromas. Much stronger green onion note (which I like) balanced well by a mélange of fruit juice: grapefruit, mandarin, nectarine, pineapple, mango, mixed berry, and green grape. Some light cereal grains and an almost rye breadiness. Very grassy and quite green/weedy, but it comes together quite well. An initial hit of pleasant sweetness drops off pretty quickly, replaced by the greenery, some floral notes, and a big dose of grapefruit pith. Very dry finish, with lasting grapefruit bitterness and a little bite at the end. You won't mistake this for a big ABV hazy, but it packs a pretty good punch for its size.

Medium-thin liquid but the carbonation and general softness gives it a moderate feel. Pretty good tongue and teeth coating for the ABV, making the pithy grapefruit hang around all the way until the next sip. Similar to Pastels, a damn solid 6% hazy, not spectacular at any one thing but consistently good across the board.

Undated can.

L: Pours an opaque darkish yellow, with a big fluffy head and thick lacing. Handsome.

S: A little citrus and pineapple that becomes more noticeable. Very faint dankness.

T: More pineapple with the citrus. Emphatically dry finish but no bitterness.

F: Light mouthfeel, medium carbonation.

O: Tasty and easy drinking. Quite sessionable. Solid and enjoyable, if not spectacular.

 

Tasted in a Spiegelau IPA glass from a one pint can on May 4, 2020.

 

L - Good, murk-froth, another (NE)IPA; nothing all that distinctive on appearance, decent head, less lacing @6.2% not surprising from the can (August 2020 canning).
S - 2 weeks old, and this has all the goodness of citrus-dank-tropical fruit one would expect. Smells like Citra/Nelson in the mix, wouldn't surprise me if there's some Mosaic, either, but don't see it listed. Interesting. Good blending of the hop bill here, beguiling.
T - Fantastic taste for 6.2 - generous loads of weed, grapefruit, and pineapple without spilling over into cat pee or ripe mango when IPAs get too big or too sweet. Definitely good stuff here on the palate.
F - Hard to tell this is 6.2 - both by way of flavor, but also pretty damn good balance, and full tongue saturation. A little bite and green hop aggressiveness, but nothing off-putting.
O - another great canning from ORB after an early August taproom visit, glad I had some of these 4 packs around. Wish more brewers would lower the ABV on their IPAs to this range instead of all the big D/TIPAs getting put out.

 

Yellow-orange haze, earth, tropical and pine aroma. Medium mouthfeel. Flavor is outstanding, earthy and fruity with a modest bitterness. One of my favorite hazy IPAs.

 

 

 

 

Beautiful dull yellow-orange body, murky; immensely thick and densely fluffy white head; sticky fingers and patches of foam cling to the glass. Sweet mango and orange aroma; a faint scent of light grain malt. Well-balanced flavors of mango, papaya and tangerine; a mild taste of biscuit malt; slightly tangy. Medium-heavy body; fine coarseness with a touch of creaminess; acidic; a bit of alcohol warmth.

If more hazy and NEIPA offerings offered the depth and citrus freshness with the flavors, I wouldn't be so blasé towards them. Outer Range's Blocks of Light makes for a good hazy evangelist for the beer genre.

 

This is my first beer from Outer Range Brewing, an apparently-small brewery whose two most-well-known pale ales just showed up for the first time today in my favorite local store here in MA. I can't guarantee freshness of this beer personally, as the brewery doesn't seem to can-date, but the dude who owns the store said they just got it in an unannounced drop. Shrug. Anyway, this is a 6% DDH NE-style IPA hopped with Galaxy and Mosaic. Seems like a tough beer to mess up. Hoping for the best!

Pours an opaque, nicely-vibrant orange color with strong lightfastness and a generous dollop of head which nevertheless sinks down to about a half-finger of pillowy suds after a few minutes. Very nice lacing and superb legs on this one, topped off with a hazed-over surface covered in the same foamy goodness which once built up to three (or more!) fingers. I'm into it.

The nose is dank and fruity with some intense guava, papaya, pineapple, and passion fruit alongside a touch of white wine grape, all combined with that certain sweaty/musky dankness that Mosaic plays up so damn well, especially in smaller IPAs such as this one. There's a "creaminess" to the proceedings here, as well, which almost makes me think of lactose, but I don't see that as a declared ingredient on the can anywhere, so who knows. Interestingly, this has a very Citra/Nelson forward element as well. Indeed, I would definitely have guessed those two hops had some involvement here if the two listed hops weren't given.

Oh yeah, this even tastes like a Nelson IPA, right down to the gooseberry-like parting note of each sip. Interesting, that. The Galaxy and Mosaic are certainly playing together well here, however, bringing out intense earthy, piney, and tropical flavors that dance nicely on the palate. A slight bit of herbal liqueur, stone fruit like flavors (apricot/peach), guava, and mango all present well with some backing notes of tangerine zest and bright pineapple-like sweetness. This is a touch syrupy for its strength, and drinks a bit more in the 7+% ABV range, if I'm being honest, but it could be due to how oil saturated and hoppy it is. I definitely dig this and will try to have more stuff by these guys as long as they keep distributing here. Nice-looking can, as well, if that counts for anything.