New West IPA NA
Two Roots Brewing / Cannabiniers

 

 

 

Best by 2022/08/03
Pours a large frothy rich almost 2 finger head with great retention, sticky lacing, hazy med orange color with lots of floaties

Nose a bit of fresh wort and fresh pale malt, hops bring plenty of citrus and fruit, a little bubblegum, lemon zest, tangerine, little floral

Taste more fresh wort typical of NA beer, grainy malt, a bit of sweetness, hops bring floral spicy notes with the citrus, lemon and tangerine zest, med bitterness, dry finish with med spicy hop bitterness lingering

Mouth is med to a bit lighter bod, med to higher frothy carb

Overall actually pretty nice NA IPA, west coast style and actually delivers that, fresh wort base, no real off characters, good hop character without being overly green or spicy esp for NA beer, nice!

 

Poured from a can into a pint glass. Pours yellow orange with a fluffy white head. Smells of citrus hops-inviting. Tastes of floral and citrus hops, nice and full. Beer is light bodied and easy drinking with good carbonation. Overall, a very good NA beer.

 

 

 

 

The Best By date is 1/28/22 so this one is likely past prime, but had characteristics of a nice IPA. I'm marking down the appearance because of 'floaties' that detract, and they may have affected the taste slightly (although with this beers age, maybe that's a factor too).

 

At $13 for a six pack the question out the gate is-- Was it worth it? And the short answer is yes but the longer answer is more intriguing.

Poured from a can into a standard pint glass. As soon as I cracked open the can top there was an immediate and massive aroma of pine, mango, orange juice, and lemon grass. The aroma really opens up even bigger once poured out and you get subtle hints of fresh baked diner biscuits and sugar cookies on top of the aforementioned aromatics.

The body is thick opaque golden yellow with hints of amber, orange, and white. Milkshake like and very active in small bubble carbonation. The head builds to a large frothy crown with uneven open and closed bubbling. Reduces to excellent lacing around the rim and across the face of the top. Seriously one of the most beautiful IPAs I've ever poured.

On the nose-- lots of mango, passion fruit, kiwi, guava, and pine needles. Mid-palette you get a very intense bitterness from the pine notes. Almost an acrid acid sting of super powered grapefruit and grapefruit rind that overwhelms all flavor. Depending on who you are and what your palette likes this is either incredibly displeasing or for the select few-- absolute nirvana of old school IPA bittering. This far outreaches an ESB or standard IPA. It takes me back to classic West coast IPAs of years gone by when wrecking a tongue to the point of numbness was the goal. It's dare I say wonderful and out of a NA beer is completely unexpected. How they achieved this level of hopping and bitter with a NA is something of magic honestly because all those beautiful hops notes like this are usually sacrificed to the NA gods during the alcohol removal process. And here somehow they have figured out how to make that not happen and how not to use some after hopping that while would add notes could never do anything like this. Truly next level and revolutionary-- brilliant! Back palette things reduce to malty biscuits, caramel, and strong pine tree needles. There is an under current of star fruit, stone fruit, candied cranberries, and grapefruit rinds with a hint of lemon zest. It all comes clean on the after taste with lingering grape fruit, lemon and a bit of Tang like OJ flavoring. Honestly just an incredible IPA period, much less a NA IPA.

The mouth feel is very full and this is also brilliant. Usually there is a thinness that is made up with oats and wheat added to mix, but that also lessens the IPA flavoring of the hop notes. Here that does not happen. There is simply malt barley, water, yeast and hops. Somehow though this has the full New England IPA milkshake mouthfeel with all that thickness, foam, and syrup feel with no alcohol. Again normally the very process to remove the alcohol degrades the mouth feel and somehow they figured that out too. It feels like a NE IPA.

Honestly if you told me this beer had less than 4% ABV I'd be shocked. Tell me it has less than .5% ABV and I'm blown away. It looks, smells, tastes and feels like a 6%-8% ABV NE IPA. And a very excellent one at that. Really just an absolute wonderful job. 4.5 out of 5. Excellent. Highly recommended.

 

Appearance: Fairly cloudy light-yellow color with a generous-sized foamy off-white head that slowly faded. A good looking IPA.

Smell: Modest citrus fruit aromas and pine aromas.

Taste: I get mild floral notes, mild pine notes, and mild non descript fruit notes, I found the taste profile subdued like Straight Drank, but just like Straight Drank, I also find the typical N/A malt sweetness absent. The beer finishes nice and dry.

Mouth-feel: The beer is light bodied with a generous level of carbonation.

Overall: A good N/A IPA.

 

Rating this against other NA beers of the pale/IPA style. Pours a hazy orange with a nice 2 finger white head of medium density that is relatively long lasting and leaves some decent lacing, but points off for disgusting suspended solids that make it look like someone screwed up in brewing process. Mouthfeel is typical NA...on the thin side but not as thin as some others and the carbonation level is nice; not overly fizzy. Citrus on the nose and flavor profile dominate. At times I get a somewhat weird-ish watered-down lemon flavor. Overall not a bad NA but two things kill this one for me relative to some of their competition: the suspended crud which is quite visible, and the price: $14 per 6 pk is far too much for this brew considereing that as-good or better NA IPAs can be had for $10/6pk.

 

Pours clear, amber in color with one inch head. Taste is mango, pine and hemp. Medium body and carbonation, slightly bitter. Wow do these guys do beer well. Dank and tasty. Will get this again. Not as good as Straight Drank.