The Best of the West - Georgetown
Western Collective

16oz can from Brewers Haven. Golden / copper pour, wispy head. Malty aroma, mildly sweet, light hop presence. Dry, earthy hops up front, soft toasty malts trail. Full, lingering bitterness. ABV slowly catches up with you like a sneaky little bastard

a collaboration with georgetown, tasty and pretty well refined, especially for western collective in this style, but i had slightly higher hopes for a more striking and original brew here. i think its best aspects are its clarity and drinkability, how well it hides its alcohol, and how clean it is on the finish, just a tiny bit of compatible residual sugar there at the end, this is objectively pretty good, but on the other hand, the hops seem a little lost to the grain, which isnt even all that heavy, there is nothing unique to me at all about the hop profile, and there isnt quite enough bitterness at the end for this to seem balanced in a conventional sense, the gain is a little one dimensional but still sort of leads the way, which is odd in this style. that said, its more drinkable that most at this strength, doesnt have anything out of place on the fermentation side, and really does tasty pretty good, even if its a little samey. cool that these two got together for this, and i think western collective has improved a lot in the last handful of months or so, but their hoppy stuff still isnt what they do best, so this is a big step in the right direction. have to be careful with this one, its a ripper for how strong it is!

16oz canned fairly recently, poured into a nonic. Pours out a beautiful clear golden color with a large off-white head. The nose and palate are full of dank, resiny pine notes and a solid sweet malt backbone. Mild citrus rind and grapefruit pith. Smooth, oily body with a flash of bitterness but the malt really does let this get to bitter or dry. Just fine overall BUT I expected a little better.

 

In one word, exceptionally balanced for the style. Ok, I know.. more than one word.

A-resplendent dark orange nearly clear, with modest amounts of carb bubbles rising up. Prodigious head for the style
S-less aromatic than expected. Muted dank pine.
T-No one note stands out. Some might think this flavor profile is jumbled, muddled. I find it balanced between dank and lite citrus. From the brewer: "This massive IPA is double dry-hopped with two pairs of hops chosen by each brewing team. Amarillo is paired with Azacca and Simcoe paired with Strata for intense notes of grapefruit, resinous pine and tropical dank.". I don't get the intense grapefruit necessarily.
M-Medium (-) body, oily smooth mouth, very dry finish.
O-I will be running out to grab more of this new one-off Collab release before it disappears.