Warhorse Hazy DIPA
Battle River Brewing

Freshly canned in a good old pint glass.

Fuzzy hazed light washed golden colored brew. Bright white cap, 2F, decent amount of sticky lacing. The film holds up.

It’s a Jersey brew that smells like a neipa; pineapple and mango tropical mix with some light citrus notes.

Fruit soaked wheat flavors, mango, pineapple, and grapefruit citrus bite.

Medium body, high fruit and citrus juice mix. Tropical up front with a citrus bite finish. Juiced.

Overall, a good version of a not so good IPA style.

 

In a world of IPAs from smaller breweries, this one is definitely above average. Would recommend.

Battle River Brewing "Warhorse"
16 fl. oz. can coded "WARHORSE 11:06:40 BREWITDOWNTOWN"
$4.99 @ Total WIne & More, Cherry Hill, NJ

Notes via stream of consciousness: The label on the can I have simply states "INDIA PALE ALE" but it is 7.5% ALC/VOL, and it does appear to be a hazy New England style IPA. It's light gold, cloudy, and the head is a short cap of white foam. The aroma is floral and fruity. It's apple-like, citrusy with orange, and otherwise tropical with mango and pineapple. It's not the brightest aroma but it's not bad. On to the taste then... the malt is basic as expected. I'm assuming that it's 2-row brewers malt with some wheat and oats but I can't confirm any of that based on taste, I can only say that it doesn't taste like there's anything else in there. The apple found in the aroma remains and it's fairly dominant. I'm assuming that's coming from the yeast, but again, I can't confirm that. The other fruity notes remain as well. It's "juicy" with orange and a little bit of mango but I'm not getting a lot of pineapple. There's a little bit of hop resin and subtle pine to it but I'm not finding much beyond that although there is a kind of berry-like thing going on in the finish. It's mildly acidic, just moderately bitter, and still dry in the finish. A light touch of hop bite helps with that. In the mouth it's light-medium in body but with a silky smoothness from all of the extra proteins. Back to the appearance, the head held up OK and it left a little bit of lacing about the glass but it's certainly not great. So now how to judge this? I once had a conversation with the late Michael Jackson about rating beers and he broke it down in two ways: judging to style, and judging hedonistically. Hedonistically I think this is a decent beer. It's pleasant enough, and refeshing. As a New England style IPA, and there are of course several variations, I see it falling into the "juicy" category. If I judge it in that sense it pretty much makes it but it lacks in both hop aroma and flavor, and given its overall components it comes across as thin in the end. I like it but it's got a long way to go to reach top tier. My final thing to note, and this doesn't have anything to do with the beer itself, is that if you're going to ink-jet your cans why would you not put a date on it? If you can print the name of the beer, the time it was canned, and "BREWITDOWNTOWN" you've got plenty of space to include the date. I know why they did it, I'm a brewer and I understand it, but at the same time there's no integrity in hiding the packaging date from your customers or your distributors and retailers. The final consumer is the most important customer but the retailers and distributors are customers as well. Not dating beer makes me raise an eyebrow.
Review #8,252