Hell's Haze
UTOG Brewing Company

my first time at taboo pizza, which we liked, looks like these guys do a few beers for this place, a cool concept, but i didnt love either one of them, this is just okay, their cucumber lager was an utter failure. this looks really malty, reddish rusty colored on the pour, a few shades deeper than what is fashionable in these, some head and nice carbonation on it, but its murky as heck and looks maybe overly grainy and not super well refined. the nose is fine, burnt orange, dehydrated stone fruit and maybe mango, oily and danky too, toasted on the grain side but not overly rich for its color, a little incomplete or stressed or something on the ferment too, fine hop profile but not a very tidy beer to me, really in any respect. the flavor is fine too, but not great, zested orange, cooked or candied citrus peel that retains some pithy bitterness, spruce and gin, some oxidation to the point it has a newspaper note, more body and bread crust character from the malt than it needs, and with a lot of yeastiness not doing it any favors. i think nice with spicy food, citrus comes through from the hops, but this is not of great overall quality and it shows in a few places, disappointing to me, but its cool they are making beer for this rad pizza spot and i suspect it sells anyway despite its rough edges. these guys should be better than this by now, i found this frustrating, a cool idea and a recipe full of promise but its just technically sloppy, sad to see from a now pretty established operation...