Reign Man
Fast Fashion Brewing Company

another hoppy banger from these guys, thanks to a friend for sharing a few fast fashion cans with me in a fun sit down, always cool to check in with them, the beers just continue to rule. this one is done with an nba hero and pushes pale ale about as far as i think it can go in terms of hop load, really robust and modern, super super pale, double dry hopped with mosaic, nelson, and motueka, nice combination. whitewashed hazy, somewhat dense to me despite the minimal color, neat looking pour really, high headed and creamy overall, very east coast. aroma on this is obviously new zealand driven, lush near ripe green melon, skinny floral white wine grapes, bosc pear, a little canned fruit cocktail, lemon starburst candy, awesome hop fruitiness with high thiol character apparent, on top of starchy dry but hefty grain, maybe some raw wheat in play, oats likely too, not quite soupy but a lot of mass for a pale, perhaps necessary for all these hops. the flavor is like the nose, i thought it might lean green or forced a bit but amazingly its all in balance and pretty clean, some oils on the palate but no burn, white wine is bursting here, some weedy character too, melon rind, aloe, wildflowers, meyer lemon, juicy guava, robust in dosage but somewhat gentle in its character, and both can be true. freshness is peaking, the grain brings body, simple cereal flavor, and a long drawn out smoothness that certainly flatters these hops. carbonation is uplifting, which is needed, and while the hop load teases ipa range, i think this still fits as a pale, albeit a decidedly trendy one, some hop linger but not bitter hardly at all, juicy then dry, whipped feeling in a way, body but not as heavy as it looks. delicious mix of hops and cool build on this, as good as i hoped it would be, love the lower alcohol with this hop punch, just fantastic.

Draft at the Handlebar. Hazy yellow pour, sparse head, streaky lacing. Fruity aroma, mostly citrus, pineapple, then light tropical notes. Taste is zesty, grapefruit and pineapple, light floral flavors too. Fast finish

For a pale murkster it's decent. I am not a fan of that style, however.

I've got some prejudices about this beer, before I even drink it. I'm a longtime Sonics fan, going back to the 70s, so yeah, Shawn Kemp is in my personal Hall of Fame. But I'm not a fan of murky hazy bombs, and that's what this is. But for a hazy, it's actually quite good. A whole lot of flavor for a 5.2% pale ale. A fine blend of hops, gentler than most IPAs, as you would expect. It might almost turn me into a fan of murksters.