Sticky Vortex
Block 15 Brewing - Southtown Tap Room

16oz can

Pours a finger of white head into my Willi. Retention is nice. Lacing is super thick. Body is pale yellow, crystal clear, with a modest nucleation. Looks great.

Nose is dank, piney, and pungent - exactly what you want from a west coast IPA.

Flavor is much the same - dank, piney.

Mouthfeel brings the profile down a little bit with a sticky, slightly cloying feel, and a mildly astringent alcohol / bitterness. Carbonation is mild. It’s bordering on imperial IPA territory, but the texture and alcohol seem like they could be dialed down. I suppose it does live up to the name.

Drinkability is ok.

Overall a super big IPA that gets away with it for the most part. The mouthfeel smooths out completely by the end of the glass, once the palate adapts.

Nice pour, clear with a unfiltered haze. Aroma is floral and faintly dank. First sip comes up with a tasty combo of fruity and mild earthiness quickly followed with a dry and sustained finish of pleasant hops. Taste is wonderfully smooth and highly drinkable. We actually lean towards placiing Sticky Vortex a notch above the base beer. ABV here is a bit lower as well - 7.7% vs i.1%.

Look: Pours a slightly opaque medium yellow with a lofty white head that eventually settles to a lid and leaving good lacing behind

Aroma: Passionfruit, pink grapefruit, pine, tangelos, fruity Cannabis, boysenberries, lemon-lime, and sweet bready malt

Taste: Citrus comes out swinging hard with a huge hit of grapefruit, tangelos, orange, and lemon-lime that quickly team up and develop depth. Berries, pine, and some tropical fruit comes next and these go back and forth with the citrus, with Cannabis popping in and out, all atop a nice malt base through the middle before closing with more citrus, pine, and a big bite

Mouthfeel: Full, slick, medium-high carbonation, and dry on the finish

Overall: This is some tasty stuff. These two breweries are in my top 5 for hoppy brewers in the state and I enjoy both Vortex and Sticky Hands, so when I first heard about this collab, I wanted it and thankfully got it. It lives up to my own hype and comes across as a best-of-both-IPAs-type collab with lots of citrus, dank, berries, and tropical fruit, grounded in a West Coast frame. Delicious and recommended

 

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a medium golden amber with a three finger white head with good retention and nice lacing. Aroma of pale malt, citrus and dank hops, lemon, catty dankness and a hint of pine. Flavor is pale malt, citrus, piney and dank hops, orange, grapefruit, pine, herbal dankness with some faint light stone fruit esters developing into the finish. Solid bitterness throughout. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess and nice mouthfeel. This Block 15 version of the collaboration has the same basic profile, but a little drier malt and more dankness; a somewhat less pine in the finish. Both had great dank notes. It would have been fun to do a side-by-side of these two, but they showed up at different times and each disappeared quickly. I liked the light burst of fruit in the end taste into the finish, which was also nice in the Fort George version, although that one was a little more tropical. I liked both quite bit and would like to see either again.

Clear bright yellow brew with plenty of foam in the goblet. Big fragrance of lime and something like a Margarita. Hot and sharp on the tongue, even with a serious dollop of sweet malt. Taste is bordering on extreme, but it's not extremely bitter. Just an eye opener and certainly bitter enough.

This is practically a DIPA with the alcohol and the dose of sugar. Pleasant enough to sip, but I'm going to get that Blonde Ale out and try it 50/50 with the Sticky Vortex. From the 16 oz can purchased at Elizabeth Station. Dated 05/21/24, so it's one of the freshest IPAs I've had this year.