The Present
Block 15 Brewing - Southtown Tap Room

Amber brew, nearly clear, with a pile of coarse foam in the wine tumbler. Aromatic with apricot and lime peel. Clean citrus taste with an acidic tang. Some flavors of blueberries and white grapes with citrus peel finish. Woodsy notes with a long bitter aftertaste. Interesting and robustly flavored but tough to drink much of, although it does invite slow sipping to let the aftertaste dissipate. From the 16 oz can purchased at Town & Country market. Date not legible.

Look: Nearly clear golden yellow with a sudsy head that quickly rises, retains, and slowly settles to a pillow, leaving webs of lacing clung to the glass
Aroma: Whoa, I could smell it on the pour. Papaya, passionfruit, pineapple, mango, nectarine, a little lychee, sweetened strawberries, sweet mandarin, and bready malt
Taste: Starts out with a juicy punch of tropical fruit that includes what I detected in the aroma with passionfruit, pineapple, and mango standing out the most. Berries, sweet citrus, and nectarine follow suit and all atop a nice malt base that holds it all together but stays out of the way somewhat to let the hops truly shine. Closes with more tropical fruit and a light-to-medium strength bite
Mouthfeel: Full, lightly slick, clean, medium-high carbonation, and lightly dry on the finish
Overall: This is some tasty stuff. I thought I missed my chance to score this one but stumbled across it so had to when I saw it. I’m not too familiar with Nectaron hops but this gives me a good idea of what it brings as it’s a tropical fruit-heavy hop and brings a lot of unique things to the table, especially in this well-crafted WCIPA. Definitely a winner and recommended

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint. Pours a light to medium golden amber with a two finger white head with great retention and solid lacing. Aroma of lightly caramel and pale malt, citrus, tropical fruit and piney hops, grapefruit, mixed tropical fruit, pine and some dankness. Flavor is pale malt, tropical fruit, dank and piney hops, grapefruit rind, mixed tropical and light stone fruit, pine and catty dankness; fruit character develops into the finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. This does seem to be "The Present", a West Coast IPA that has suggestions of classic pine and citrus, but leans to fruit and dank flavors. This has an interesting flavor progression, rather citrus rind and catty at the start, but with quite pleasant mixed fruit developing in the finish, revealing the flavors I expect from Nectaron. Nice lingering citrus rind, dankness and pine in the finish with solid bitterness. I've always liked the Block 15 taste in hops and I'm a fan of this one too. I'm intrigued by the past, present and future meme and will see if I can pick up the amber and rice lager, which I passed up in favor of this one, but are styles I haven't revisited for a long time. Interesting idea (although rice lager as the future?, interesting).