Rise
Slake Brewing

473 mL can from the brewery; coded B295 and served slightly chilled. This is a hazy IPA brewed with Motueka and Peacharine NZ hops; I'm not sure if I've ever had a brew with Peacharine previously, so this'll be fun.

Pours a hazy, turbid pale apricot-yellow colour, generating nearly two fingers of tight, foamy white head. It lasts for more than five minutes, draping the glass with a full coat of lace as it drops down to a frothy collar and a filmy cap; looks great so far. Lemon, lime and white peach on the nose, with additional hints of grapefruit, passion fruit and grainy pale malts.

Very tasty; relatively juicy flavour profile with minimal bitterness. I'm getting lots of peach and nectarine, with notes of Meyer lemon and lime zest also coming through early on. Hints of grapefruit, grainy malts, steel-cut oats and tropical fruits develop later on, with some pithy hop bitterness cropping up at the finish; concludes with a citrusy aftertaste of grapefruit & lime that fades to off-dry. Nearing full-bodied, with moderate carbonation and a smooth, pillowy, fulfilling mouthfeel that suits the style beautifully. A very quaffable IPA that I could probably drink one after another.

Final Grade: 4.08, an A-. Slake's Rise is a quality hazy IPA that I encourage other BAs to seek out and try for themselves. My only complaint - more of an observation, really - is that the hop profile is a little two-dimensional: it leans heavily on citrus and stone fruit, with little else going on beyond that. That being said, the peach, grapefruit and lime flavours really pop nicely, and I'm not sure muddling them up with a third hop varietal would necessarily improve this beer - it's quite good as-is. On par with some of my go-to Ontario NEIPAs, and a brew that I would buy regularly, if only it were stocked at my local bottle shop.

Becoming their flagship IPA, it's quaffable sufficiently to have 10 ounces. Carbonation and sweetness with the hops, but less of each would be more. On tap at the source.