Punk As F*ck
Saltfire Brewing

16 oz can from Toby. Bright amber pour, pinkish, ring of head. Aroma? All over the place. Sweet funky, smoky. Taste is also a mess, too much going on.

 

 

a collaboration with a local skate and punk record shop, the first beer i have seen from these guys in a can, and a total beast of an ipa, canned just a couple of days before i got to enjoy it, could not possibly be more fresh unless i was sucking it from the tank! huge thanks to my brother in law for sharing this one, i have been high on saltfire since i first got introduced to their stuff a few years back. this beer is a little hazy with a deep golden to brassy hue and some obvious viscosity and a nice white head on it slowly fading. the aroma is massive, some alcohol pushing up stone fruit and pine notes from the hops, curiously not citrusy really to me, more peach and apricot, juicy still, well dry hopped, and with some more traditional northwestern pine character and bitterness. the flavor matches, but as big as this is, the hops arent green and over saturated in here, there is nice refinement. a lot of these can be sort of kitchen sink beers, like how much hops and alcohol can you pack in, with taste as an almost afterthought, but this is super dialed and good, im impressed right away. it doesnt get too alcoholic until it warms up, but it had it between some huge dark beers, so maybe my palate was just immune to the booziness, but i smell it a lot more than i taste it. maybe some orange flesh to the flavor from the hops, but its still more peachy than citrus driven. more and more bitterness as it warms too, but somewhat modest for its strength i reckon. enough pale malt supporting, no more sweetness than it needs, and a pretty clean ferment. i dont normally love ipa at this intensity and strength, but this is really modern and well proportioned and good. the hop profile is pretty unique and it works well in a beer this pungent. the freshness is impeccable too, and that never hurts. fun one to share!

I love the name of this beer. To me, it envokes, sticks it to the man. I have tried several of Saltfire's IPA style beers and, those beer are tasty. This beer claims it is a triple IPA, I expect this beer to have significant hops presence. The beer is less than two months old, and I still think it is fresh. The pour of the beer produced a two-finger creamy and airy head with fair retention. The color of the head is light tan. The head retention surprises me somewhat, considering it has a high alcohol content. I have drunk imperial IPA with high alcohol content and excellent head retention. The beer did leave a touch of lacing on the glass. The color of the beer is dark amber with mahogany hues. The beer's clarity is brilliant. Overall the beer's appearance is lovely.

The aromas in the beer are toasted crackers, bready malt sweetness, floral, pine, oranges, lemons, herbal, resin, a hint of pineapple, solvent, and a touch of earthiness.

The flavors in the beer are heavy malty sweetness, toasted bread, crackers, heavy pine resin, oranges pine needles, bay leaves, pineapple, grapefruit, earthiness, floral esters, solvent (akin to band-aids), and lemons.

The mouthfeel of the beer is dry, crisp, and astringent.

The body of the beer is husky, carbonation medium-plus, and finish is full.

When I first sipped this beer, I tasted a heavy malty sweetness. Then the beer morphed into this giant hop monster that began its assault on my palate. The hop profile in this beer is ridiculous. The beer has a nice assortment of hop flavors, but pine and resin are dominating. It seems the brewer intended to say fuck you to your palate, hence the name Punk as F*ck. I do like this IPA: however, it is a hair to assertive for my taste in beer. I did taste the alcohol; but, I could not differentiate the alcohol content.