Dab Lab: Northern Lights
Block 15 Brewing - Southtown Tap Room

Attractive clear golden brew with plenty of foam inb the Maredsous goblet. Smells resiny and piney. First sip is surprisingly bitter. No flavor of malt or sweetness. Taste is herbal and intensely bitter.

Hops are listed as CTZ, Chinook, and Centennial plus Sultana hop oil Then dry hopped with Mosaic and Simcoe. Whatever the intent, it’s too much bittering hops and just a hop overdose. Way bitter, thin, and harsh. From the 16 oz can purchased at Elizabeth Station. Blurry date stamp.

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a lightly hazy, medium golden amber with a whipped cream white head with great retention and thick lacing, looks great. Aroma of pale malt, citrus and fruit hops, orange, vague mixed fruit and a touch of pine; smells good. Flavor is pale malt, citrus and lightly piney hops, orange, grapefruit, pine, faint mixed stone fruit; a little more pine in the nicely bitter finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. This Dab Lab leans to the West Coast style with mostly citrus and pine in the mix. Quite interesting fruit notes in the aroma that did not seem to pop in the taste. A bit subdued, but a satisfying WC IPA with a light, but good herbal hop flavor. I might be spoiled right now due to so many fresh hops, but I'm still happy with this as I have been with the entire series.

Can Date: 9/1/22
Palate Contaminants: none

The color is a nice light gold. Slightly opaque. There a ton of very fine white head, maybe too much.

The smell has light malt, nice and sweet. Lots of citrus (red grapefruit and orange) and tropical fruit (papaya and pineapple). A pleasant amount of pine sap is present, too.

Overall, the taste is a bit thinner than one would hope, given the nose. More malt, for sure. A touch of lemongrass. The red grapefruit is still there, but it gives way to more earthiness. There's a lot more tree present, although the pine sap does work well with the remaining sweetness.

Very nicely integrated carbonation, if slightly prickly. Alcohol is more detectable than desirable for a seven percenter. Weight is medium for the type. Aftertaste is fairly dry, mostly the moderate bitterness from the hops is what's left, although traces of pine and fruit are discernable.