Party Pack
Green Cheek Beer Company

Can poured into a Mountain Rambler Brewery pint glass

A: Pours hazy golden straw yellow with a frothy off white head that settles to a thin layer and laces nicely.

S: Green, resinous, citrus zest, tropical and stone fruit, a bit grassy, slightly crackery biscuity malt, and light caramel sweetness.

T: Vibrant citrus, lemon lime and tangerine, resinous fresh green pine, tropical and stone fruit, pineapple, passion fruit, mango, peach, apricot, watermelon, and a hint of pear, a touch grassy, crackery biscuity malt, and light caramel sweetness.

M: Medium body, moderately lively carbonation, a tease of hop burn as it warms.

O: Normally I steer away from beers with El Dorado or Ekuanot (let alone both) because I'm not a fan of how some of their flavors tend to show up, but a buddy brought me this can and vouched for it so I had to give it a go. He was right. They got all the best out of those hops and none of the flavors I try to avoid. Great intensity, super tasty.

 

 

On tap at Green Cheek in Costa Mesa, CA.

Like a donkey kick straight to the nuts, this one packs a wallop. Whoa... What is going on here? This one is huge and large and in charge like the Astros when they are cheating. But make no mistake, this one is 100% legit here. Man, it’s just straight up tasty and pungent like a good IPA should be.

Get it!

 

 

 

Straight pour from a 16oz can to a flared pilsner glass—AZ Wilderness’ Wilderpils glass. This has no packaging date, but it was canned recently and released this past Saturday, just four days ago. It’s fresh and been chilled consistently.

Appearance (4.0): This pours out two fingers of dark custard-colored foam, capping a pale, straw yellow body that’s deeply hazy but not murky. The head dies away at a reasonable, even pace, leaving a pock-marked cap and chunky, broken clumps of foam and lacing all the way around the glass, giving the appearance of the inside of crispy, baked meringue. Retention is okay, but while it lasts it’s quite pretty.

Smell (4.75): Right away the nose offers a nice, tantalizing blend of sweet, oily citrus (thick chunks of navel orange zest), more astringent, brighter notes (tart lemonade and limoncello), and thicker, sweeter, tropical notes (champagne mango and passion fruit in even measures, with a touch of pink guava). A bit of sour and resinous cannabis, lemon curd, and just the lightest addition of common crackers and pain de campagne crust. As it opens up a bit, pineapple basil and somewhat tannic, macerated raspberry come through.

Taste (4.75): More dynamic than I remember, this is an absolute juice bomb cut with nearly astringent, lightning-bright citrus zest notes. Overripe pineapple and bruised mango flesh compose a backdrop in front of which several brighter, more bombastic components get their day: soft passionfruit nectar married to dank, resinous, somewhat sour ganja, alongside an even mixture of grassy and floral bitterness, while almost candy-sweet tangerine oozes out from between each piece. Still, it continues to fall back onto that flashy bitterness, tempered a bit by pain de campagne crusts, soda bread, and white flour dumplings. Something more interesting happens as the flavors meld a bit as it warms, creating this smooth mixture of bitter-tropical-tart-juice, again eliciting something akin to macerated raspberries. It’s wonderful.

Mouthfeel (4.0): On the palate, the beer comes in with a soft flush of juicy, easy foam that doesn’t stand up or hold out for too long. The body is perfectly medium-weight but feels just slightly fuller than that, thanks to the chewy, juicy body married to just enough residual starch and protein to give it some thickness. Hop oils strip away much of the juice and roux, leaving a lighter but still deeply juicy midsection that lingers, leaving a solid imprint. This beer is easy to drink, but is more than full enough to feel satisfying.

Overall (4.5): Okay, so I had this on tap on Sunday, three days ago after another brewery visit, and thought “ah, okay this is straight hop juice in only the best ways.” Tonight I had it from a can, without any palate fatigue, and was struck by how much more dynamic it was. Don’t get me wrong—I was ready to call this beer excellent from my initial dive into valley of champagne mango and cara cara orange three days ago. It’s just now, I’m convinced that this beer is not just a salacious juice bomb, but a more complex, unexpectedly nuanced, dynamic Northeast-style (D)IPA. No sign of booze, just endless hop juice and flashy, but never blinding bitterness. Very highly recommended. Green Cheek knows their way around these hazy (D)IPAs.