Face Tats
BlackStack Brewing

 

White head. Hazy sunset orange.

Pineapple orange juice. Very tropical and fruity. Some mango and papaya in there as well. A bit of the abv shows. Otherwise really solid.

Poured from 16oz can into pint glass

Look: Pours a murky gold color with a two finger head. Extremely hazy.

Smell: Intense fruity hop smell with a bit of sweetness.

Taste: Great balance of fruity hop flavor. Does not assault the palate and lets all flavors come through well. A tad too much booze in the taste but this is easily overlooked by the flavor profile.

Feel: Lightly creamy. Rests on the palate well and finishes easily.

Overall: I have had better beers from Black Stack, but that is just because of my personal tastes in beer. This beer easily outperforms most other craft beers and is a perfect in between for lovers of beer that is creative with straightforward hops and beer that is juicy and delectable.

Sixteen ounce can – I’ve been stockpiling IPAs, not intentionally, but my days of travel & annoyance are over. For now.

Mostly yellow, slightly orange in appearance, mostly opaque, though not quite as thick as last night’s sacrifice. The nose is lightly fruity & vaguely sweet. Not very remarkable.

Face Tats continues the trend of recent Blackstack beers, veering away from a lovely mix of NE & West Coast, & moving further & further towards Connecticut. Nice fruitiness here – apple, pineapple, pulpy oranges. Mid-palate brings fruit cereal sugar, finishes with a touch of creaminess. Filling. Glad I split the can with my wife.

Just too sweet. Unless they can rein in the sugar overload, I’m just about done blindly buying four packs of Blackstack. Too bad. They’ve put out some amazing stuff. Pretty good brew.

 

Tasted in a Spiegelau IPA glass from a one pint can on November 11, 2018. Double dry hopped using Vic Secret and El Dorado hops. Notes of tropical and citrus fruits.

 

Murky, pale gold with a fluffy and sticky white head. Massive amounts of lacing on the glass. In the nose I get some orange, grapefruit, pineapple and pine. Lightly sweet flavor with a lot of tropical fruit like mango and papaya. Some of the grapefruit and pineapple appear and there is a nice, clean bitterness at the end. Very tasty.

 

 

I've only had Face Tats on tap @ Blackstack. As someone that has been in the MN craft beer scene since it really started taking off 10+ years ago, I think Face Tats is one of the best Minnesota beers ever created. I think it has the qualities of a flagship beer and I think they should make this a year-round beer. Of the double dry-hopped IPAs it's the best I can remember having.

The color is a warm hazy yellow-orange. There's a lot of citrus & sweetness in the nose / taste. Additionally, the finish on this beer is fantastic. It does not leave any astringent or off flavors on the palate if you take a long rest between sips. I have no idea how this holds up in a can, but I imagine the dynamic flavors go off relatively quickly. Get it on tap if you can. It's a great beer and vastly eclipses both the 755 flagship and Tiger Style which is replacing it on store shelves.

Update:
I got this in the can and it is no where near as good as it is on tap. It's very different from a can to the extent that the beer on tap almost tastes like an entirely different beer to me. I am going to head back to BlackStack on Sunday and try it on tap again and update my rating. From a can this beer has far less sugar and juicy citrus in the taste and nose. There's an astringency to the back-end of the taste and a lingering astringency / tannic quality that I absolutely hate in beer.

From a can I'd update my ratings to be:
Look: 4.0
Smell: 4.0
Taste: 3.5
Feel: 4.25
Overall : 3.8

 

This beer pours a hazy yellow with a large head. The aroma is bright and fresh, with notes of banana, papaya, and passionfruit, honeycomb, and a touch of concord grape. The flavor is wonderful, ripe, and sweet, with notes of cotton candy, papaya, mango, passion fruit, overripe peach, nectarine, honeycomb, and sweet squash. The mouthfeel is very full and sweet, with rich, creamy carbonation. Overall this is an undeniably tasty beer, perhaps a toucher sweeter than my taste, but still, utterly pleasurable and well done.

Poured into a Pint glass from 16oz can. Haze with a moderate gold color. One finger head with excellent lacing. Aroma exceeded my expectations and the taste follows. It is strong sweet passion fruit, mango, maybe pear? This is hoppy and finishes a little stronger than anticipated. Overall this is yet another fantastic BS offering.

Poured from 16oz can into glass. Recent release.
Murky, pale gold colored body. One finger white head settles back to solid cap and ring. Leaves behind some good sheeting coverage of lacing.
Aroma is strong sweet passion fruit (with the accompanying slight sour). I do not get any pine or citrus here.
Taste is strong mango and passion fruit, quite sweet yet with a touch of tart. There is a bit of pear. The high hop amount results in that mouth stripping action that gets close to metallic.
Very soft mouth feel, quite thick. Good carbonation.
A heavily hopped IPA that is sweet and has no bitterness. One is enough per session because of the heavy hop presence.

Pours a hazy straw color with a receding thin white head. Smell had notes of stone fruit and pear with some candi sugars. Taste was very topical notes of mango,watermelon,stone fruits a touch of white grape wine mixed nicely with some candi sweet malts. A super pillowy mouth feel with low bitterness ABV well hidden a little prickly pine and passion fruit in the finish.