Fresh Hop IPA (Amarillo)
Loose Screw Beer Co. - Downtown Brewery Taproom

this is really quite good, despite us being overly late on the wet hop season, a few of these around the market have been holding up better than expected. this one is bright and clean, a good expression of amarillo which is to say maybe slightly samey in a lot of ways, but its well made beer, still obvious that its done with fresh hops, and more than anything its great to see a bunch of new flavors on tap at the meridian space here, it was getting a little bit stale there for awhile. the nose and taste line up pretty well, ripe yellow peach and soft juniper notes, sweet orange, and an only sticky vibe that exudes freshness even now. my issue with this, and indeed a lot of the beer here, is in the ferment. this is less offensive than others, but there is an estery thing to the yeast, suggesting a stressed pitch or less than ideal conditions, too hot most likely, but its got a slight almost phenolic aspect about it that comes up a lot as it warms on the back end, its just a little tickle here, but it does clash with the hops, and makes me move on after one pint despite liking this beer quite a bit. its way more robust in others, but those help me identify it here too, they need to clean up their ferments across the board, and if this is just a feature of their house yeast, its pretty rough in the hoppy stuff. medium body here, off dry from the malt but its out of the way, nice carbonation, neatly low alcohol for the style, and cool stone fruit and citrus lingering on my tongue after the swallow. this could be excellent in the future...