Counter Curse
Obelisk Beer Company

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a light to medium golden amber with a one finger, lightly fizzy head that ultimately has great retention and nice lacing. Aroma of mildly caramel malt, dank and citrus hops, lemon, grapefruit, catty dankness and a hint of pine. Flavor is lightly caramel and pale malt, citrus, dank and piney hops, grapefruit, orange, pine, light dankness and hints of mixed fruit. Solidly bitter in the finish with some lingering pine and citrus rind. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. A classically hopped true West Coast IPA, which are getting rare these days as the style changes with time (and often merely refers to "not hazy"). Looks, smells and tastes great with citrus and pine dominating, but some dank and fruit notes to keep things interesting. Hope this is a regular offering, I'll watch for it; this puts Obelisk solidly on the map for me.

16oz can (packaged 7/30/2024) into a tulip. Pours a pale golden color with a 1-finger white head.

Aroma is tropical and juicy—grapefruit, orange, lemon zest. Enticing.

Taste is likewise a blend of tropical citrusy hop flavors over a neutral malt canvas with just the right level of sweetness. A nice West Coast hop bite, plenty of spicy alpha acids. Hides the 8.3% ABV almost too well.

Mouthfeel is balanced and medium bodied, drinkable and refreshing.

Overall an outstanding WCIPA—nothing wrong with this one.

Tried from the can at the Imperial in PDX yesterday.

The beer pours a striking golden amber color with good head retention and lacing. On the nose, this smells great, as I'm picking up tropical fruit, pine, light onion and just a hint of dankness. The flavor profile replicates the nose pretty closely, but with a surprisingly light mouthfeel. There's decent bitterness on the finish, and the alcohol is very well integrated into the flavor profile. While the beer delivers plenty of flavor, there's no sense of heaviness on the finish. Also, the modest sweetness from the malt is countered very nicely by the bitterness on the finish. This is a very tasty dipa.

I don't believe I've had anything from this brewery in the past, but based on my experience with this beer, I'll keep an eye out for Obelisk stuff from now on. This is one of the better new DIPAs I've had in quite some time. Impressive.