Made You Look
Tribus Beer Co.

 

What a peasant surprise this was. I went to the brewery for some Benji and decided to also grab a 4 pack of this. Tribus is a small brewery in Milford, CT that doesn't distribute around New England yet. So this review is really just intended for those of us in the Southern CT / New Haven area that can get it. Up until now I would not have imagined that people would be traveling far for Tribus. Not that they are not good. They are. But they have been more of a local thing since opening. But read on . . . .

I cracked this after two other beers . . and I think that's important because sometimes the first beer is always the best beer. You know what I mean. The first two were, in order, Foley Bros. Fair Maiden and then Counterweight's Vulture Culture. Both of those are great IPAs (or doubles IMHO). At any rate, I had muted expectations simply because, while I like Tribus, I've had IPAs that range from just OK to solid from them.

First: The smell. As soon as a cracked the can it hit me. Compared to every IPA I've had in the last month or so, this one had the most profound aroma. Instant passion fruit and melon. It pours juicy irridescent golden brown. Excellent. Raising the pilsner glass to me lips (I prefer these for almost all beers) I was again knocked over by the smell. A++ on that smell.

Now the tase: Yes, it is passion fruit. Passion fruit and melon. It tastes like it smells. There's a little bit of acid in there. The carbonation bites nicely. The mouthfeel is smooth and a little creamy - but not a lot creamy. It doesn't drink like a thick juice bomb. But it's not thin either. It looks a little more juicy than it drinks, which is the only reason I gave it a 4.75 for mouthfeel; not because the mouthfeel isn't excellent. It is! It just feels little different than it looks.

Halfway through it I was not facing the taste fatigue that I sometimes get from strongly flavored IPAs. Nor did I have the over-sweet syrup feeling. I get the sense that there isn't much residual sugar in this. At 6.9% (I think) it drinks like a solid single IPA with the flavor profile of a double. There's no cinnamon, coriander, or dough in it. There's a good malt flavor balanced with a strong tropical passionfruit fizz. My guess on this is that it is heavily mosaic hopped since that pineapple/passionfruit is sometimes a result of certain use of that hop. See for example counterweight's Wizard Fight which, in my opinion uses Mosaic in a similar way.

I think that ultimately the best way to describe a beer is to compare it to others or simply to place it on par with others of its caliber. It would be interesting to compare this one to any of Treehouse's latest brews side by side. If we are being honest, their stuff is among the best in New England and I love them for it. I don't have any at the moment for side by side comparison, but I've had enough over the last several years to say that I would probably pick Made You Look over most of the recent Treehouse beers (Hurricane/Typhoon/Spring/Summer and forward . . . ) It's not going to replace Julius or Green, but then again, I don't think anything ever will. But seriously, this is one fantastic beer.

I've been stopping in at Tribus every few months since they opened a year and a half ago. They started strong but couldn't win my heart from the likes of NEBCo, Fox Farms, Treehouse and Trillium. That started to change with Benji and now this one! My only suggestion for improvement is the name. "Made You Look" just doesn't have the marketing ring, the sophistication of something like "Julius." It's too sophomoric, too adolescent for what this beer is. And they do that with a some of their beers at Tribus, giving them almost throw-away names that are either silly or light hearted phrases. In my opinion, that doesn't do this particular beer justice. This one needs a real name. Put it in a redesigned can and call it "Passion" or something like that. One word. That's it. Because that's what it is. If they market this one right, the've got themselves the closest thing to a distributable, brewery-defining beer that they've yet had.

As a final endorsement, my wife who doesn't drink a lot of beer by an means but who does seem to have an uncanny palette for all things quality in life, has her few favorite IPAs. They are, in order (best favorite to least favorite): Trillium Sleeper Street, NEBCo DOUBLE Fuzzy Baby Ducks, Treehouse Alter Ego, and Main Dinner. She tasted my Made You Look a few hours ago, said "That is absolutely delicious", relinquished her Margarita and confiscated my glass. Thankfully, I've got three more left, and the brewery is closed until the end of the week when I will be the first in line at curbside pickup to get more.