If You're Ready
Small Change Brewing Company

 

 

As a pretty regular fan of stuff husband-and-wife duo Small Change Brewing has done over the past couple years, starting with their very-solid A Little Rain dry-hopped APA back in the middle of 2018, I feel uniquely qualified to weigh in on what they're doing now, two years into their brewing venture. Though they contract-brew at Manchester, NH-based Great North Aleworks, this small outfit's footprint is much more in line with a brewery like Cambridge Brewing Co. or Idle Hands but at a much more diminutive scale; they've done a dark mild, a great English-style porter, and a solid hoppy blonde ale, and they're finally coming around to the NEIPA trend with this new Citra/Mosaic IPA. If you're a Small Change aficionado, you'd know that they focused on Mosaic hops for A Little Rain, their first beer, and then went with Citra for Whatever's Cool With Me, a "West Coast IPA" released last April. I'm hoping this is like a mid point between those two, as both are very good.

The pour here is a deep orange hue with about 85% opacity... it's somewhat translucent, in other words, with a stable haze that looks pretty nice. It's not an ugly, opaque milkshake, in other words, but seems more-carefully defined. The head is thin but retentive, building up to about a half-finger and retaining with a quarter of foam, leaving behind some moderate lace and solid legs. Decent surface coverage here as well. Overall, a pretty good first impression.

The nose is full of the magic of Citra and Mosaic, as expected, which in this case reveals the combination as one bearing mostly tangerine and pine/dank elements with a slight sniff of blueberry and redcurrant in there as well. Slightly "all-over-the-place" from the Mosaic and pretty citrusy from the Citra without going full-on intense on either... rather, it's hanging around in the middle ground that these two hop varietals can occupy when working well in tandem. I appreciate the way that this comes across... it's very balanced.

My first sips are pretty much what I expected, with a medium firm bitterness backending a moderating grain presence that sits comfortably at the balancing level while also being slightly-flavorful and biscuity at times. The flavors of grapefruit, pomelo, tangerine, and passion fruit meld well with some of the dank, semi-earthy, and berry-like undertones brought on by the Mosaic. This thing is pretty punchy for how unassuming it seems to be, though, and before long you'll probably be feeling its charms. Another SCBC beer primed for repeat drinking and pondering. These two are so good at making sessionable, discussion-worthy, high-quality beer that it's unlikely I'll ever let a new release of theirs slip away from my grasp. High marks. Very good!