Saint Helens
Mountain Lakes Brewing Co

Brewery tap-filled can, poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a medium golden amber with a one finger white head with good retention and nice lacing. Aroma of pale malt, citrus and dank hops, grapefruit, ripe stone fruit, orange and a little catty dankness. Flavor is pale malt, citrus and dank hops, grapefruit, a touch of pine, catty dankness. Well bittered in the citrus rind finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. Clearly leaning to the Northwest IPA style, but mostly citrus character, but suggestions of pine and some dankness, particularly in the finish. Nicely bitter, but the hops are bit stark in the finish. Needs a little more malt depth. This version is 6.7% ABV.

Taster at brewery. Best of the lot. Wishing good things for these guys. Really nice, smooth, consistency. IIPA with a mildly sweet tinge, caramelly, malt and hops. Slick and creamy.

 

i really didnt love any of the beers i had in here, and this one too was lackluster, with a little bit of a chemical thing to the fermentation profile, some over hopped greenness, and it just sort of seems disjointed overall, a little soapy, and messy from a technical standpoint. a little hazy and a little dull looking from the tap, but light in shade and plenty bubbly when i drink it. aroma has some light esters to it that really dont belong, almost belgian for a second, and some pine intensity on the hops before the vegetal side sets in. fresh enough, that part is good, but not quite refined enough. the flavor is the same, a little detergent aspect, some minimal dry cereal grain character, and then the hops that sort of clash with what the yeast does in this. perhaps fermented too warm, maybe just a soapy glass it got poured into, tough to really tell, but its approaching unappealing as it warms. hate to be too tough on this, on the off chance it was a fluke, but i had it at their taproom, so its an issue that is theirs, wherever it occurred in the process of getting it to my lips. modest bitterness lingers a little on the swallow, high carbonation sort of saves it, and just not a very professionally done beer overall. i noticed similar fermentation characteristics in other beers i had here too. hopefully still a work in progress...