Flume Lite
Battery Steele Brewing

 

From an undated 16oz can with a label that says “Little Flume.” The brewery apparently changes its can labels between Little Flume and Flume Lite. Go with Little Flume! Delightful, lower abv version of the brewery’s Flume, a double NEIPA.

16 oz. can $5.99 - Jesus palomino - no canning date
Look - pale straw color, hazy juicy, foamy white head, no lacing left thru this session
Smell - tropical, citrus, tangerine, lime, dank
Taste - tropical, sweet citrus, berries, lime, citrus pith
Feel - thin body, above average carbonation, hoppy zing and sticky finish
Overall - Looks like I'm a little late to the party as the name changed from Flume Lite to Little Flume.
Nevertheless, I finally made the leap and got one but the price was pretty steep.
Happy to try it though as it's pretty impressive for such a low ABV 4.8%. A little thin but had a good flavor to it so I would buy again but only in the 4 pack for a better value. Take a ride on the wild side and pair this brewski with Wild Side by Motley Crue as you sip and enjoy.

 

tasty session ipa

 

 

Canned 2020/12/21, solstice
Pours a med fizzy bubbly almost 1 finger head with med retention, hazy cloudy light pale peach color

Nose big citrus and tropical, papaya, orange, tangerine, but generic tropical citrus, light malt and flaked proteins

Taste on the lighter side as expected, plenty more citrus, orange juice and tangerine with a little tropical mango, papaya, pithy, plenty of flaked oats or wheat, little cereal grain, drier finish, little green spicy hop

Mouth is med to lighter bod, lighter frothy carb

Overall not bad, basically just a lighter version of flume as expected

 

 

 

A- Tallboy pours into an 8oz glass with a very hazy pale yellow body. The head rises quickly to a finger high with a frothy consistency. Fairly good head retention and spotty lacing with a few small webs.

S- For 4.8% ABV this aroma is bursting with hop pungency, mainly in the way of dank and fruity hops. A strong mix of tropical and stone fruits along with the dank weedy hops. Mango, papaya, pineapple, dank herbs, melon, strawberry, peach and nectarine. Oats and whole grains come to mind.

T- As with just about any other low-end ABV IPA ever the flavor isn't as pungent as the aroma but what is found here still hits the spot. Dank weedy and oniony hops with fruity notes of mango, peach and pineapple. A touch bready and oaty with a light sweetness.

MF- Light bodied on the whole. Texture is a touch puffy and a bit frothy and this is always the hardest part of a lower ABV brew; it holds up with other session IPAs. Ends with a clean herbal bitterness.

Kind of bought this on a whim knowing I liked Battery Steele and in general trying to keep the non-single beer purchases below 8% ABV. In the end this is up there with the best session IPAs I have come across. Splendid hop aroma leads to a flavorful hop presence on the taste buds.

 

Flume is one of my very favorite consistently-brewed NE-style double IPAs, so to see a smaller version come out (canned yesterday! Fresh!!) made me pretty excited as I'm gonna be going on a lake trip over this coming weekend and was in need of high-quality lower ABV offerings to drink while canoeing or chilling on the dock. I'm going to assume that this is essentially just Flume, including its general hop load, but at a bit more than half-the-ABV. Sounds fun, though sometimes session IPA versions of normal/imperial IPAs lose that certain "je ne sais quoi" from being essentially second runnings, or they just straight-up don't feel like the same beer whatsoever. I hope this avoids such pitfalls!

The pour here is essentially very similar to regular ol' Flume, at least in terms of color and opacity, which is a great thing, although the head is a bit less retentive and pretty much instantly fades out to a thin, almost nonexistent ring of foam, and there isn't much lace to it. In other words, it's pretty decent looking for a hazy IPA, but it does miss some of the better auxiliary characteristics from a normal Flume pour.

The Citra/Mosaic hop character of Flume is here and almost 100% intact. Of course, there is a little less "perfume" to it since the ABV is much lower, so there aren't as many volatile aromatics, but it's still very close. I get papaya, passion fruit, and mango with a little of that dank onion-y note that Flume shows off, which I assume is Mosaic doing some interesting things. Pine resin, some sticky tangerine/tangelo/white grapefruit, and a bit of spice are notable here as well. I'm into it, for sure!

First sip is slightly nuttier and grainier than regular-strength Flume, but there is still a nice hit of hoppy goodness here bringing out a lot of magnificent citrus flavors ranging from orange to tangerine to pomelo. Some sticky papaya, resinous pine notes, and ripe mango flesh show up toward the close of each sip, and a nice, firm, lingering bitterness carries through the palate. Similar thick and juicy feel to Flume, so the mouthfeel is just about the same except for, obviously, the slightly less strong/forward ethanol. Definitely don't regret getting a four-pack of this one, as it does retain a lot of qualities of the original, unlike many sessionable versions of DIPAs (the first one that comes to mind is Matchbox Lambo vs Lambo Door by Grimm... it was good but felt very much like a different beer rather than a small version). Pick it up if you see it and aren't in the mood to get hit over the head by an 8%er.