Hop Blaze
Twisted Slate Brewery

this one sort of hits like an english ipa, lots of color, lots of grain, but balanced with a pretty bold hop back end too, like the other beer we had from them here its a bit homebrew-esque, as in its less refined and professionally executed than it could be, but this is a little nano operation with plenty to offer, and i do not want to be too critical, i like this for not falling into the same old ipa recipe trap that trips up so many, this is its own thing, and i dig that. straight up amber colored, frothy tan head from the tap but whoa, this is dark for an unspecified ipa type, maybe dial back the caramel malts moving forward, a lot of body and richness to this that i think slows it down a bit, but its all fresh and hits bready, earthy, and enriched to me. some sweetness in the taste, molasses, bran, hearty and warm, autumnal or wintery, not summery, and the hops play along with higher alpha pine character and some light greenness but no burn, punchy and familiar, old school but appealing, everything fresh. the mouthfeel on this is nice, creamy a little bit with all the malt in here, small bubbles but a lot of them so it feels pretty excited. not a pint pounder for me, a little overly malty, and could be tidied up in the ferment a bit too, but these guys seem to just be getting their beers rolling and it was cool to check it out. excited to see if they can take a step forward in quality in the months ahead...