Pinky The Cat
E9 Brewing Co.

definitely not retired, just in their impressive rotation i think. beautiful sparkle to this one, pretty good clarity too, not perfectly clear, but not hazy either, id say west coast style based on that, but the bitterness is pretty tempered too, and the hops seem more dry hoppy than anything else, really fresh and flavorful, they almost never tell us what the hops are, but this is juicy and a little tropical to me, not overly new school, but decidedly modern, especially with such a light and mellow grain base in behind it. big aromatics here, sliced melon, tangerine, kumquat, good sativa, its lovely, fresh, and springy, like warm weather ipa to me for some reason. the flavor is similar, fruit forward with out balancing bitterness late, and a super minimal grain profile, lighter bodied than a lot of their beers and a faster finish, not fully dry, but still snappy at the end, aided by high carbonation, its real drinkable and quite distinctive, very professionally made. there is an oiliness in the center that carries the hop flavor and its clean by the swallow, impressive. for how many different ipa types these guys make, i always wonder when they will start tasting samey or forced and they never do, they continue to kill it with everything they make. i could have knocked back a bunch of these...

Can dates sometime around mid-summer and it's late Sept. So, what do we have here? Very hazy pour, light golden amber. A finger or so of head. Nothing exceptional for the nose. Dry taste, fruity with some light spice. Clean, balanced. Warming slightly brings out additional layers of flavors. Pretty well crafted, nothing exceptional. Any IPA in these parts has to be pretty good to rise above the crowd. Good as any, better than some.

16oz can

Pours two fingers of white head into my willi becher. Retention is above average, and half a finger remains after a few minutes. Initial lacing looks really nice. Body is a somewhat hazy golden yellow, with a good amount of bubbles coming up. Looks pretty nice so far.

Nose is tangerine, orange, rind, tangy, some pineapple and even mango when agitated enough. Very effervescent and bright. I’ve been having a few too many citrus bomb hazies lately, but this at least smells right, seems very refreshing and not cloying.

A lot of rind, that citrus is there, but it comes through more in the feel than the flavor. This is good for the feel, but I wouldn’t mind a huge flavor too, which is somewhat underwhelming.

As for the feel - the body has some nice weight to it, about medium, maybe a little higher. Carbonation is also about medium-high. Bitterness is noticeable, but manifests more as a citrus fruit tang than a hop bitterness; a tiny bit abrasive, but that really just adds to the character in a positive way. A touch of sweetness, generally drier though; overall very well balanced, super refreshing, and crushable. Very lively mouthfeel, lots of character, nice.

Not quite what I would consider “clean” cause there is too much action for that, but for a citrusy IPA it’s clean and goes down quite well, good drinkability.

Appearance turned out surprisingly poor, pretty much zero lacing, very odd.

Overall a beer that adds up to be much more than the flavor, the whole ensemble actually makes for a pretty enjoyable brew.