Moon Rover
Kettlehead Brewing Company

 

 

Poured from a can dated 1/19/23 “to the moon and back”

Cloudy golden yellow appearance, thick fluffy above the glass rim head, soapy lacing and a thick white cap
Aromas of candied orange, grapefruit, overripe pineapples, stone fruits and honey. It’s fruit and sweet smelling but dank as well, kind of a nice balance.
Taste is pretty complex yet blends into a nice mouthful of tropical fruit, piny notes sweet orange, lemon rind, peach and clover honey
Mouthfeel is chewy, creamy, medium carbonation with a gradual uptick of resins and malt. Lingering dry resinous tongue prickly finish. I did not detect an alcohol burn.
Overall it is a fine representation of a New England IPA, fruity dank nose, creamy, has a bite, finishes prickly. It’s smooth and easy drinking and light feeling. I enjoyed it a lot and I drank it fairly fast for me.

 

 

 

Been enjoying most of Kettlehead's output recently, and have felt lucky enough to stumble upon their beers when I go to a certain store in Nashua, NH. This is DDH Moon Rover (which I guess is just normal Moon Rover; kinda confusing), a DIPA with Galaxy and Columbus hops. It's under 8%, so in my opinion, it's not really a "true" DIPA, because I'm a pain-in-the-ass like that, but I'll still review it as one I guess. This doesn't have a can date but some pretty quick research shows that this was released 12/30/20, making this just over a week old. Nice and fresh!

Pours a gorgeous, opaque orange color with some golden/yellowish highlights if held up to light. The foamy head builds up to about two fingers upon initial pour, and retains pretty damn well with a half-finger even after five to ten minutes in my glass. Legs and lace are consistent and sticky, making this look pretty damn nice in my glass. Even the surface coverage is good and I can even see some islands of suds still sticking around with a bit of volume to them. I'm into it, for sure.

The nose here is pretty nice, kind of tip-toeing between a dank profile and wanting to be really fruity, tropical, and intense in that very specific "Galaxy"-ish way. I get a lot of green overtones, dankness, chives, and earthy scents with some backing notes of papaya and ripe mango here and there. Spruce and tangelo mingling with some light elements of wildflowers and fennel as well.

DDH Moon Rover has a very enjoyable flavor profile that really straddles the line between old-school and new-era hoppiness with its choice of hop varietals. Columbus is bringing some strong, West Coast bitterness and dankness to the proceedings while Galaxy seems to dabble in tropical fruit here, giving off a dose of mango and papaya with some lighter backing elements of passion fruit. Hints of syrupy pineapple sweetness are noted as this gets closer to room temperature, and I enjoy the feel here as well as it warms. It's got a tinge of ethanol heat with a mouth-coating oily slickness from the intense double dry-hopping, and the whole thing just feels really well-made. I honestly am not sure if Columbus/Galaxy is the best hop combo in the world, but this was fun to try. It's not in the upper echelon of hoppier/bigger IPAs I've had lately, but I definitely liked sipping it!

Can from the Packie
Hazy murky grapefruit in color with a frothy rocky white head that persists. Grapefruit pineapple and apricot with bits of earthy pine and a sweet bready malt to back it up. Pretty tasty brew.

From both tap and cans. Murky yellow pour with thick cap of foam. Aromas are many fruits and a slight sweetness amid dank tones. Flavor follows very similarly with low bitterness, a fairly thick mouthfeel that's neither cloying nor dry. Finish is clean. Very tasty stuff as usual.

Got in a trade with SawDog505. 16 ounce can into tulip glass, no can dating. Pours opaquely hazy deep golden/orange/amber color with a 1-2 finger dense and rocky off white head with fantastic retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lasts. Thick foamy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Fantastic appearance. Aromas of big mandarin orange juice, red grapefruit, lemon, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, honeydew melon, berries, citrus peel/zest, light peppercorn/pine, wheat, biscuit dough, light honey/toast, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of citrus/fruity/tropical/fairly earthy hops and bready malt notes; with big strength. Taste of huge mandarin orange juice, red grapefruit, lemon, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, honeydew melon, berries, citrus peel/zest, light peppercorn/pine, wheat, biscuit dough, light honey/toast, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness. Mild pine, citrus peel/zest, herbal, floral, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of mandarin orange juice, red grapefruit, lemon, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, honeydew melon, berries, citrus peel/zest, light peppercorn/pine, wheat, biscuit dough, light honey/toast, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness on the finish for a while. Incredible complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/fruity/tropical/fairly earthy hops and bready malt flavors; with a solid malt/bitterness balance, and no cloying/astringent flavors after the finish. Lightly increasing dryness from lingering bitterness. Medium carbonation and medium-full body; with a very smooth, creamy/silky/bready/grainy, and lightly sticky mouthfeel that is fantastic. Slight lingering resins/rinds through the glass. Minimal warming alcohol for 7.8%. Overall this is an incredible NEDIPA. All around fantastic complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/fruity/tropical/fairly earthy hops and bready malt flavors; very smooth and dangerously easy to drink for the big ABV, with the mildly bitter/drying finish; amazingly soft feel. Amazing Galaxy, Columbus profile. Extremely juicy and fairly dank/earthy hops; with a perfectly balanced wheat/oat/malt backbone. Light residual sweetness with lingering dryness. A highly enjoyable offering, and amazingly spot on style example. One of their best I've had yet.

 

 

L - 2-finger dense yellowish head atop a murky yellow body.

S - orange, herb, grass.

T - follows the nose. Aggressively dank orange, with grass, grapefruit, cotton candy, melon. Low bitterness. Moderate-low sweetness. Low booziness.

F - medium body and carb.

O - abrasively in your face.

 

 

 

 

 

Pint can poured into a Duvel fat tulip
* Updated notes on 9/27/18.

Opaque and super hazy...no milkshake! Style, gold, yellow and orange tones with white highlights. The foamy head is seriously dense and creamy. Whipped cream like appearance. Very slow to dissipate. Long lines of sticky lacing just crush it.

The nose had a delightful mango and cream scent, orange citrus, vanilla and pine needles. A very heady and sweet aroma. The sweet citrus, cream and pine just kills it!

The hops hit you hard at first, the bitter side of earthy kicks in big with high alpha acids like pine, peppery citrus and crispy grass. The malt is seriously impressive with crispy but full texture, wild honey, cream, golden wheat and dried herbals. A bit of alcohol heat mingles with some of the pineapple and mango fruitiness, creating sweetness but also tangy-sour notes. High toned citrus, creamy maltiness and very earthy hops all come together pretty well. The aftertaste has a sour-fruity and long malty effect. Galaxy and Columbus hops are a very complex with Columbus bringing some old-school hitter pine as the combo offers multiple layers of hoppy flavor.

Overall a very impressive NEdipa, good complexity, lush mouthfeel, but I think the balance and melding of flavor's could advance in a much more harmonious fashion. Otherwise high quality and...give it a go!
*9/27/18 : So I don't remember how Chunky this is from the last few drops in the bottom of the can. It's soupy, with chunks of leftovers, yeast bits and hops. It's like some one crushed up hop pellets and threw them in, bottle conditioning style! Strange and very intense.