Moonlight Kettle Series (2019): Lunar Haze
Muskoka Brewery

 

473 ml can served cold into a pint glass. Part of the Hopsonic mixer pack from Muskoka. Cost came out to $3.50 for the can.
Freshest by January 5, 2020.

Appearance - Hazy, turbid yellowy golden color, not that far off from orange juice although with less orange. A finger's worth of dense fluffy head, good retention and some curtain style lacing at the edge of the glass.

Smell - Big juicy nose, with grapefruit and papaya being the stars. Orange and passionfruit also show up too. A nice bouquet of floral aromas rounds things out.

Taste - Kind of a muddled fruit concoction, orange, passionfruit and other stonefruits are most present with some grapefruit interspersed as it is fairly sweet. Some noticeable boozy heat as well. Taste is initially subtle, it seems to take a few well paced sips to get any flavor to last, but when it does, it's quite good.

Mouthfeel - Fairly heavy bodied, drying sensation in the mouth at the close and even a touch chalky. Carbonation is middling but works well with the flavor profile.

Overall - A pretty solid DIPA that is New England style, haze bomb and all and has some considerable sweetness behind the initial layer of bitter, AT the same time glad there's only one, think there could be some big time hangovers, if you drank more than a couple in a sitting.

473 mL can from the LCBO; one of six different hoppy pale ales included in Muskoka's Hopsonic mixed pack. Best before Jan 5 2020 and served barely chilled.

Pours a muddy, translucent goldenrod colour, sporting two fingers of puffy, foamy white head that falls apart within the next two or three minutes. A messy swath of seafoam lace is spattered about in the process, with a frothy, soapy collar being the only other remnant of note; looks like an NEIPA to me, which is in line with the hop bill and the inclusion of oats. Notes of grapefruit, orange, passion fruit and peach come through on the nose, alongside lesser hints of floral, earthy hops and grainy pale malts.

A yummy DIPA that keeps its bitterness in check, while also integrating its 8.5% quite skilfully. It tastes of peach, berry, mandarin orange and grapefruit, accompanied by notes of passion fruit and mango, underlain by a grainy-sweet pale malt backbone. Citrus pith and earthy hop bitterness briefly comes through towards the finish, with the flavour reverting to tropical/stone fruitiness into the aftertaste. Medium in body, with middling carbonation levels that briskly prickle the surface of the palate, imparting a slightly crisp bite to this brew's generally smooth mouthfeel.

Final Grade: 4.12, an A-. Lunar Haze is basically an imperial NEIPA, and I rather enjoyed my glass. Hard to say if this is objectively 'better' than their Twice as Mad Tom - sure, they're both strong IPAs, but they're very different beers: this one pivots around its fruity/juicy hop flavours, while Twice as Mad is more of an old-school DIPA that proudly shows off its bitterness and abv. The truth is that they're both fairly good, but in different ways - I'd be satisfied with either one in my glass. If you're a curious hophead sitting on the fence, so far I'd have to say this sampler was worth the investment - but I'd encourage you to pick it up sooner rather than later, because hops are a perishable ingredient.

 

 

473ml can - made with 'Lupulin Powder'.

This beer pours a murky, medium apricot yellow colour, with three fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly off-white head, which leaves some decent broken chain link fence pattern lace around the glass as it slowly dissipates.

It smells of gritty and grainy cereal malt, a muddled tropical fruitiness, a bit of musty yeast, some hard water flintiness, and more leafy, weedy, and resinous piney green hop bitters. The taste is grainy and crackery caramel malt, some orange, red grapefruit, and lemon citrus peel, further indistinct exotic fruity notes, a damp minerality, and more earthy, herbal, and grassy verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is average in its palate-pleasing frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and mostly smooth, with nothing really a cause for concern at this particular juncture. It finishes off-dry, the malt and mixed frooty notes presiding.

Overall - this comes across as a pleasant enough NE-style DIPA, with the powder addition enhancing that chalky character. And with a well-integrated 17-proof booze factor, this will go down nicely on yet another -30 YEG afternoon. Yeah, broken record and all, but whatcha gonna do?