Strawberry Shoppe
Central Waters Brewing Co.

Central Waters Strawberry Shoppe, 6.7% ABV. Pours dark hazy orange with a one finger white head that left no lacing. Nose is strawberry, pine, vanilla, and lactose. Taste is strawberry, lactose, and vanilla with a moderate bitter close. A bit over-carbonated, overall excellent.

 

 

 

 

 

12 oz can dated 8/21/19 poured into SN Spiegelau.

A very orange-to-burnt-orange color with a creamy cap of 2 fingers, leaving sparse lacing as it recedes to a ring.

Aroma is of sweet oranges, tart strawberries, and lactose, perhaps mixed with bubble gum and sweet tarts. Slight Centennial action here as well, nice greenery with grapefruit rind.

Flavor is too candy-like, in fact it's really not much like an IPA at all. (If this is the way we are going with IPAs, this is definitely a bad move.) Tangerine rind, some grapefruit, strawberry puree, all sprinkled with lactose and fake sweetener.

Feel is creamy and smooth but with a nice resiny finish.

Overall, not a fan, even though their Mimosa was pretty decent. This one is much too fakey and sweet, will probably give to my wife since she likes sweet beers.

 

A: The beer is very hazy and very dark yellow in color. There are some small particles visible floating in suspension near the bottom of the glass and some hints of brownish hues. It poured with a short white head that quickly died down, leaving just a narrow collar around the edge of the glass.
S: Light to moderate aromas of strawberries and vanilla are present in the nose along with hints of earthy and herbal hops.
T: The taste is nearly a mirror image to the smell. Neither sweetness nor bitterness is perceptible.
M: It feels medium-bodied and a bit smooth on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This beer definitely has strawberry and vanilla flavors, but I wouldn't really consider it to be a dessert beer as it doesn't have sweetness and there are hints of earthy and herbal hops.

Serving type: can

 

 

 

Best Milkshake IPA I have tried yet to date. Surprisingly solid!

Tasted in a Spiegelau IPA glass from a 12 fl oz can on August 30, 2019. Brewed with Mosaic and Centennial hops and lactose. Smooth and creamy with nice berry notes.

For what this beer is I would have to say it’s very good. It’s like a big strawberry shortcake candy. Nice and sweet on the front and a touch of tart bitterness on the finish. The beer is very dessert like. It did become taxing after a while but the flavors as a whole are quite fantastic. Wish they sold this in 4 packs. I don’t need 6 of these

 

I straight-up have never had a good milkshake IPA, but I've probably tried close to 10 before coming to this conclusion. However, when I was at the local beer store today, I found some of this alongside some of the barrel-aged offerings Central Waters is now making available in my area, and, since I'm a sucker for kitschy garbage, decided to give it a go. That art is horrible and weirdly captivating... I had to grab one!

This pour is downright dingy. An utterly-opaque and muddy medium amber for some reason? Probably the strawberries, but jeez guys, that seems heavy-handed... hope it comes through in the beer itself. Thin bone-white head and pretty much no lace. Meh legs and hazy (but not full) surface with micro-bubbles clustered around the center, with wisps of foam stretching outwards. Looks pretty... uh, bad? But, appearances aren't everything, and they can be deceiving. Let's say our prayers to the beer gods that this will be the milkshake IPA to finally give the entire movement a bit of credence in my eyes. No pressure, Central Waters!

The nose is surprisingly nice! Mosaic hops just utterly pop out of this one, considering they are a good match for the strawberry, and they lend some sharp dank piney-ness and light green onion to the proceedings. That doesn't sound like it would work, but the grassy chive-like note plays off the strawberry extremely well, and has me pretty intrigued for sure. This is still slightly-rough smelling, as there are some raw hop notes that don't seem to achieve much here, but overall I'm actually satisfied with how this is coming together.

The flavor profile throws yet another curveball, though I guess the addition of lactose had to come across somewhere. Most lactose-adjunct IPAs I've had just fall completely flat, but this one is so balls-to-the-wall with its hoppiness, that it's really just a slight creamy note that plays decently-well with the strawberries and intense dankness. Each sip is fun and enjoyable, though maybe a tad too sweet (still!) for my liking. I feel like this is probably the last "milkshake IPA" I'll ever bother with, because they just seem unlikely to get better than this one. The strawberry sweetness and slight tang combined with the creamy feel and intense hop-load leads to this being a definite one-and-done... but it's admittedly pretty fun for what it is. Didn't expect that, honestly.

 

 

This is a luscious, yes luscious, brew from Central Waters. Look like a nice milkshake IPA. Smell like a strawberry, yes, milkshake. It has a little tropical and bitter bite in the nose too. The taste, really, is strawberry milkshake and IPA - orange juice and residual strawberry sweetness and tartness. Feel is juicy from the lactose. Overall I really like this beer, and it begs to be drank after each sip, like a strawberry milkshake, get your sugar fix!