IPA Your Way
Half Acre Beer Company

 

 

16oz can purchased from the fridge as a single for $4.99. It's hard to read the canned-on date, but I think it says 07/29/22, so that would make this just over 3 months old.

Look: Pours a translucent hazy orange color. The beer almost has a glow to it. The head is off-white and pretty rocky, not much head retention.

Smell: Interesting. It smells very expressive with lots of citrus and tropical notes. Lots of orange along with some mango and papaya. There's also a strong carbonic acid/acidic note here which could be a sign of juiciness.

Taste: The taste pretty much follows the nose. Up front, there is some juiciness along with a bit of acidity. The finish on this beer has a mouth tingling effect; makes my palate go numb for a few seconds. It's fairly bitter with tons of orange pith and membranes along with some spicy hop resin.

Feel: Mouthfeel is medium bodied; carbonation is on the high side. The beer has a slick, oily mouthfeel.

Overall: I have been a huge fan of Half Acre for quite some time. I have only had two other beers from Hop Butcher so far. For me, this beer missed the mark. Besides Citra, it's hard for me to appreciate the purpose of the other hop varieties used here because they seem overpowered to me by the Citra flavors. I enjoy a juice bomb IPA from time to time, and I like the beers that have lots of resiny hop character. But this one is trying to do both and it just didn't work for me. I am surprised because while I often don't like higher-ABV IPAs, I can usually count on Half Acre to do me proper.

Canned 7/27/22 (3 months ago)

Appearance: Pours a fairly hazy (30% clarity) medium to pale orange color with a moderate white head. (3.75)

Aroma: Relatively strong aromas of orange, nectarine, tangerine, and some sweet tropical notes underneath. (3.75)

Flavor: Relatively strong flavors of orang,e tangerine, some dank tropical and stonefruit notes underneath. Some pine. A bit of pine, but also slightly sweet and a tropical on the finish. Finishes bittersweet. (4.00)

Feel: medium-bodied, appropriate carbonation, and a bittersweetness lingers. (4.00)

Compared to Half Acre Magic Power 10/2022: Pours slightly darker, stronger aromas. More juicy pineapple and fruit. Less resinous stonefruit and pine bitterness. Juicier and drinks sweeter.

Overall: Drinks just as described. A combination of east-coast Hop Butcher meets west-coast Half Acre. Juicy, yet resinous and bitter. A nice combination. Sort of reminds me of some other IPAs like Surly's Axe Man that blend the east-west qualities. (Rating: 3.93)

 

 

This was really good, I had it after seeing MCR in Detroit at like 4am so pardon me if I don't have the best words to describe it other than good and you really notice the hop build being different but still in the wheelhouse of solid ipas. Definitely on the tropical end

16 oz. Can
Canned On: 071322

Poured into a Tree House glass a very nice cloudy dark yellow color, very nice carbonation, with a very nice thick/creamy two-finger off-white head, which leaves some pretty nice sticky lacing behind. The nose is hoppy, malty, with a pretty nice citrus complex (orange, tangerine, grapefruit, pineapple, mango, peach, guava), pretty nice kinda pineyness/diesel like. The taste is pretty nice, hoppy, malty, with a pretty nice citrus complex (orange, tangerine, grapefruit, pineapple, mango, peach, guava), pretty nice kinda pineyness/diesel like. Medium body, ABV hidden very well, with a nice dry/bitter finish. Overall, a pretty tasty beer.

 

 

poured from a 16oz can into a willi becher pint glass. pours a hazy orange with a finger of soapy white head. malt-forward on the nose for such a hazy beer. on the flavor, once past the malt, i get citrusy orange and grapefruit with a watered down, malt forward finish. medium mouthfeel, fairly smooth but a tad thin. this wasn’t terrible but i guess i was expecting more.

Although its head billows too much well after the completed pour, it's not so terrible an offense. The contents of a pint can do fit into a clear glass Imperial pint mug. The color of the brew is a dark orange-amber that's opaque. The head is just slightly tinted with the color. There's a peculiar almost soapy smell to it. That aspect carries over into the taste and it is not pleasant. Whatever the combination of various hops with whatever starch was in the wort, this is just not working. The mouthfeel is fine, as the body is adequate. There's no lacing in the glass, a very minor problem here. Only at the finish, when the bitterness of the hops dominate, is there any relief from the weirdness that this brings to the tongue. There are times when it takes a few samples before a personal taste adapts to a particular beer. That doesn't occur here, as the last swallow is almost as off-putting as the first taste. A build-up of the hop bitterness helped minutely, but not enough to save this "never again" one. There was no taste of the significant ABV, but in this case, it would have helped.

 

 

 

smells like oranje juice