Endless Mountains
New Trail Brewing Company

 

Poured into a wide mouth, grip shaped goblet: color is murky, dense straw, head is brighter white with fine bubbles and presents one finger thick, head dissipates to solid top with spotty lacing.

Smell is citric, pith, light herbal quality, dough.

Taste is citric, grapefruit leaning with some pith and rind, light herbal note, slight bite, some booze, malt is thin and more bread.

Mouthfeel is low carbonation, moderate/strong sweetness, low bitterness and a thicker/softer note, not too drying from strength.

Overall a citric forward, sweeter HDIPA, interesting herbal note but still a bit sweet and doughy, hint of booziness.

 

 

Can dated 1/22/25 into pint glass. Hazy pale gold with a modest off-white head. Decent lacing. Initial impression is grapefruit rind, citrus, a bit of peppery spiciness, and a touch of pine. Mouthfeel is sticky. Finish fades to slightly peppery citrus. Overall, an eminently drinkable NEIPA. A lot of the DIPAs are excessively sweet, but not this one. Kudos.

Troubling is the word to describe the episode that began by emptying the entire contents of a pint can into a clear glass liter mug. The pour produced an excessive amount of stark white foam that often indicates there's too much wheat in the wort. Suspicions are maintained, as the foamy mess recedes irregularly and unattractively. Perhaps even worse, below the foam is a nearly murky dirty blond colored liquid. That's more evidence of a heavily wheated brew. Even more, the aroma is mild and vague. maybe a little like a less than pronounced spice. Sadly, all this proves true in the taste. It tastes much closer to a highly alcoholic wheat beer than a true IPA. There's a mild citrus-like hop presence, but almost no additional contribution from the malt base. Perhaps the only good thing that can be said about this is that the high ABV is well disguised. There's no way a lover of traditional IPAs would drink this for the taste experience. The mouthfeel is wheat-based thin and the glass lacing is as spotty as the receded foam. New Trail usually strikes an incredible balance of malted barley, oats and wheat to brew some of the best hazy doubles outside of Vermont. Unfortunately, there's no balance here, as the wheat contribution overwhelms the others. As any lover of a true and traditional IPA will atest, that's not a good thing.

Canned on: 1-22-25

A - Opaque medium orange golden tan color with some frothy white lacing.

S - Herbally citrus with some spiciness and underlying grapefruit.

T - Grapefruit, light peppery grapefruit rind, some herbal spiciness, lime, a slight bit of woodiness on the back side with light bitterness.

M - Medium body that's a little chewy, pillowy soft, and leaves a cotton-like layer around the entire mouth.

O - Solid and worth a look.