Outlines
Outer Range Brewing Co

Appearance: pale yellow and totally opaque. Seconds after being poured, the minimal white head fades to absolutely nothing, resembling a still beer.

Aroma: pineapple, melon and must like brown paper. The hops are obvious but restrained for an IPA.

Flavor: distinctive Belgian yeast character with black pepper and black licorice in the finish. This flavor certainly makes this beer distinctive, but not necessarily in a good/desirable way. The hops come through, but as with the nose, the hops are restrained for the style and don’t contribute any distinctive characteristics like tropical fruit, pine, etc.

Mouthfeel: light-medium; the best metric of this beer. You could drink several.

Overall: this beer was ‘ok’ – but is the lowest of the Outer Range beers I’ve tried to date. I’d opt for any other OR beer before revisiting this one. This beer isn’t ‘bad’, it is just a disappointment by OR standards.

its weird that the belgian new england ipa hasnt been explored more, i feel like the style is all trending samey right now, and its cool to see one done with belgian yeast, i would have thought more breweries would have gone here by now, but with the exception of something from omnipollo i think, this is one of the first i have seen. the belgian yeast here is a little intense, overly robust in nose and taste on the esters, clove and pear and banana, like it was fermented a few degrees warmer than would be ideal, but i love what it adds to the beer, and with all these juicy dry hops, its pretty incredible. citra for sure in here, meyer lemon and lemongrass and orange zest, oily and dense and even a little sweet, super summery and bright and vibrant and alive and fresh, really a cool mix of flavors with all the fruitiness from the yeast. white wine and perfume, elderflower, dandelion, white and black pepper, its awesome and complex. i think the yeast could be scaled back just a little bit, its too intense to want to drink a lot of it, but i love the flavor complexity and the way it has taken this style someplace new. great base ipa obviously, this is what these guys do best. whats next? a bretty one would be my vote!