Moonlight Kettle Series (2018): All Eyes on Yuzu
Muskoka Brewery

Appearance - Pours a hazy orange gold with three fingers of frothy white head.

Smell - earthy, citrus, and floral hops, lemon, orange and citrus peel, bready malts, and earthy yeast.

Taste - earthy, citrus, and floral hops upfront. The lemon, orange and citrus peel come through next. The bready malts and earthy yeast round out the brew.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes sticky with the hops and orange and citrus peel lingering.

Overall - A well crafted APA that is quite crushable. All flavours are nicely balanced with the citrus and orange peel at the forefront.

 

 

Can; pours a hazy pale gold with a white 1 finger cap...aromas of tangerine, herbal, citrus, light dusty grains....flavor is mild with pale malts in front nicely balanced with citrus peel tones....soft mouth feel...dries slightly in an increasingly bitter finish...not rich but light and satisfying...quenching and flavorful.

473 mL can from the LCBO; best before Sept 8 2019 and served slightly chilled. This is the 2019 'graduate' version, which is rolling out across Ontario (and likely beyond) as we speak.

Pours a foggy, effervescent golden apricot colour, giving rise to one finger of smooth, foamy white head that erodes at a casual-but-steady pace. Ten minutes later, a quarter-inch cap and collar of dense, creamy foam has stuck around, with an attractive curtain of lacing also left in the head's wake. An elegant looking pale ale. Plenty of citrus zest on the nose - I'm getting lemon and lime in particular, with hints of white grapefruit pithiness and juicy mandarin orange also discernible. The aroma is kind of one dimensional to be honest, but I'm a sucker for citrus.

A pretty solid pale ale, with the yuzu contributing tasty notes of lime zest, grapefruit and lemon. The fruit's helped along by a firmly grainy, bready, slight pale malt sweetness in the background, which ensures this won't be mistaken for a straight-up fruit beer. I'm also getting notes of mandarin orange, melon and some pine resin-y bitterness, the latter being most noticeable towards the finish, before it fades off into a pithy, weakly citrusy aftertaste that doesn't linger. Light-medium in body, with moderately low carbonation levels that gently agitate the surface of the palate; feels smooth and a bit soft. I found this citrusy pale ale pretty refreshing and highly quaffable.

Final Grade: 3.96, a B+. All Eyes on Yuzu was just interesting and yummy enough to be worth returning to - like most of Muskoka's seasonals, it's nothing too novel or memorable, but it's worth taking a flyer on, for sure. The pale malt backbone is strong enough to hold its own against the yuzu and the citrusy, fruity hop bill, and that sort of balance is more or less what I want from my APAs. Definitely not the last time I'll be having this one, at least as far as summer 2019 goes - and happy Canada Day!

a little yuzu taste. rather rough.