Center of Attention
Modestman Brewing

 

 

Poured from an undated can into a tulip glass. Standard juicy NEIPA in appearance: yellow amber hue with rather fluffy white head and lacing with lots of retention. Love that brewery smell… this one has hints of fresh squeezed orange juice, pineapple. Flavors of mellow pine, guava, and passion fruit on the finish. Surprisingly light mouthfeel given the appearance. Very little residual oils or bitterness on the palate. Really drinkable. Figured I might as well try their flagship NEIPA after having had 3 out of 3 awesome beers previously. Feel like Modestman can’t do wrong in this category and I have yet to try one of their beers that I haven’t liked or wouldn’t stand up to the other NEIPA heavyweights.

 

Was finally able to find this original flagship brew, and fresh no less. Released yesterday per FB post. While they've certainly managed to concoct better beers in the time since, it's clearly a tasty one and obvious how this put them on the map if it was their original offering. Crazy to say I wouldn't get it again, but they have so many absolute bangers in the NEIPA category.

 

 

From a 32oz growler, filled at the brewery several hours ago. Served in a spiegelau IPA glass.

Pours a hazy, milky-pale honey-gold with two fingers of frothy foam. Retention is excellent, leaving a heavy, lathered cap and scattered gobs of bubbly lacing. Maybe it’s the lighting, but it is a pretty beer.

Nose is sharp and citrusy. Grapefruit, lemon and soda.

Taste is in line with the nose. Grapefruit juice and lemon zest, tangerine, a dry, soda-like minerality.

Feel is crisp and quenching, medium bodied but with bright, zesty carbonation making it feel even a bit lighter. Some vinous fumes in the sinuses.

Overall, a nice bright, easy drinking IPA.

 

Straw colored haze with modest (no pun intended) lacing. The nose is fascinating. Offering striking aromas of sappy pine, juicy overripe citrus like tangerine and blood orange. Bracingly good palate that expands on those nose notes and adds a little tropical thunder of banana, pineapple and guava wrapped in a touch of burnt caramel. I little heavy on the alcohol on the feel but not too aggressive.

 

 

 

 

This brewery has quickly risen to the top of my "must-drink" list when it comes to new IPAs alongside similarly-excellent and highly-consistent breweries like Mast Landing and Definitive. The difference, however, is that this is a tiny newer brewery from Keene, NH, which makes it all the more impressive how excellent their beer has been! Center of Attention is the brewery's flagship IPA, clocking in at 7% ABV and featuring the well-known duo of Citra and Mosaic hop varietals.

The pour here is pretty nice, which is heartening to see. An opaque orange-tinged-straw colored liquid tumbles into my nonic pint glass with aplomb, quickly building a retentive, well-formed head of bone-white foam atop its body. The head measures about a finger-and-a-half at its highest point, but it never really sinks below a solid finger, and the legs and lace that it leaves behind from this slow, steady recession are attractive and to-style.

Citra and Mosaic is such a solid duo, blending qualities of older-school "citrusy" and tropical-leaning IPAs with some dankness and more complex characteristics that Mosaic can further develop and determine depending on a lot of different factors (duration/quantity of dry-hopping, the beer's grain bill, yeast profile, etc.) in my experience. Most of the time, I think of this combination as an "un-fuck-up-able" one, though, and it sorta determines whether or not a brewery is worth their salt if they can make a drinkable, complex, enjoyable IPA using these two hops in tandem. I'm happy to say that the nose here is superb, as I expected given my previous experiences with Modestman. Right upfront, it hits extremely hard with a combination of dank pine resin, stemmy blueberry, mango, and passion fruit. The back of the can includes a description that claims this is "flawlessly balanced," and that kind of confidence is certainly not unfounded.

Flavor profile is crisp, slightly-grainy, and extremely hoppy once it finally comes to fruition on the tongue. It hits with some nice grassiness upfront, punctuated by light notes of mango and passion fruit right before Citra flexes a little and assaults the palate with a huge wave of tangelo and intense grapefruit undercurrents. The finish is lighter-than-expected but still nice and firm in terms of bitterness, while some of the lingering flavors of earthy pine, resinous dankness, and bright florals exude complexity as the beer swallows dry and crisp. Drinkable, fun, and pretty complex for what it's worth, Center of Attention is an aptly-named beer that is a good choice for a regular hoppy drinker from these guys. I think this is on a very similar level of quality to their other two "regular strength" NEIPAs I've had (Buhloone Mindstate and The Sun Rises In The East), but it's probably a bit better than both just in terms of sheer drinkability and potential of repeat enjoyment. Something about Citra/Mosaic makes this kind of thing both complex and "simple" (or, perhaps reliable is a better, more specific word) at the same time, and that dichotomy is displayed excellently here.

Pours a very hazy and attractive yellow orange with a 2 finger sticky white head that leaves loads of sticky white head with excellent retention. 4.5

Smell is sleightly dank marijuana, mandarin, pineapple, papaya, passionfruit, apricot, and grapefruit rind. 4.5

Taste follows mandarin, mandarin, papaya, passionfruit, pineapple, marijuana, apricot, and some bitter grapefruit in the bold long lasting finish. 4.25

Mouthfeel is bigger than average, plenty of life, a tad sticky and dry, and at 7% ABV it drinks more like 8%, but still pretty easy drinking. 4

Overall this is nice, a little dryer than most NEIPAs and more carbonation, but a very nice brew. 4.25

 

Pint can purchased from the Sister restaurant to the Brewery, "Odelay". Stop in if your ever in Keene, NH.

Muddy straw gold color, thick NEIPA look. Golden, opaque and murky.
White foam cap spreads out to a constant thin and scattered cover.

The aroma is straight NE style, creamy tropical fruit puree, vanilla on mango, oranges and strawberries. Malted Golden grains, slightly sweet with sour tones like a pilsner malt, but cleaner

Mouthfeel is as impressive as the nose! Light>crisp>dry earthy >smooth.../slick ending light and juicy. Complex feels.

The crispy and earthy malted barley and grains that hit like wheat and maybe spelt effects seem to crush with the grainy, dry earthy notes of these hops. That all happens in the first moment. Then it's stone fruits that are pretty tropical except for the sweetness aspect. Dried grasses and dried up corn husks are an example if very subtle flavors that pop out around the edges.

Modest Man Brewing is doing good things here in Keene.