Desert Trip
Sedona Beer Company

 

APPEARANCE: Typical for a Hazy IPA. Quite cloudy, straw yellow-brown-ish...if that's a color. The head was neatly organized and level above the beer and created a very slight crown above the rim of the pint glass I poured the first 16oz. of my Crowler into. For the record, I purchased the Crowler less than 7 hours ago and it has been refrigerated since. The lacing is strong, forming a wide stripe around the top of the glass and becoming more delicate and cathedral-like as the surface level slowly drops.

SMELL: Nice and piney, almost reminiscent of an early 2010s West Coast IPA, but there's also a candied orange peel and honey, which gives the subtle citrus more of a bend towards yuzu. It smells bitter, but also sweet. The aroma sets the table for the next sip quite nicely.

TASTE: Fruity, a slightly sugary mid-pallet, with a nice, bitter finish. That's the big flavor, complex as it may be. Drilling down a bit, there's still orange, honey, a touch of lemon, Belgian Candi Sugar?, yeah...there's a touch of toffee in there, I think. There's also a touch of that old school, piney dankness from the nose and from 2011. I like it a lot.

MOUTHFEEL: Smooth, very little sparkle, but enough carbonation to tell your brain "don't worry, it's not flat." - Just tinier bubbles than most (yet not Nitro). Sweetness is quickly leveled out by bitterness. It's nice to have a smooth-feeling, semi-sweet beer, getting leveled out with a fairly aggressive, but (again), non-offensive, finish and aftertaste. I wouldn't say this is a dry beer, but I wouldn't really call it sweet either. It just maybe has the "concept of" sweetness?

OVERALL: Just a lovely, solid beer. I've had it multiple times and it's becoming my go-to at Sedona Beer Co. However, tonight's batch caught me off guard with how fresh tasting it was. I believe it is a fresh batch. But even for being fresh, it stands out in that it isn't overly green. At about six and a half percent, this one doesn't go overboard on your mental state after finishing a Crowler of it. I will continue to return to this beer whenever I'm in Sedona. I hope they start distributing, at least throughout AZ, in the future.