Condenser
Tonewood Brewing - Barrington

 

 

Tonewood Brewing "Condenser Double IPA"
$10/32 fl. oz. "crowler" filled on 11/16/17 and sampled on 11/17/17

Notes via stream of consciousness: Cloudy, hefeweizen-like golden-orange body beneath a creamy finger-thick head of slightly off-white foam. The aroma is softly citrusy, or should I say smoothly citrusy, with notes of orange and lemon, and perhaps some peach and melon. It's not "slap you in the face" bright but it's clear. Ahh, there's a little bit of hop resin in there as well. The flavor follows and it's really quite interesting. I'm not sure I've ever had a hop combination quite like this. Looking back the head has dropped to a standard collar around the neck but the lacing it's left behind is great. Not unlike the smoothness of the hops, the malt is very smooth as well, partially because of it's softer, seemingly natural fine-bubbled carbonation, somewhat due to its medium bodied maltiness, and partially because of its smooth (not harsh, biting, or raspy) bitterness. I'm not sure where it lies in terms of IBUs but I'd guess it's around 50. It's amazingly drinkable. They could've called this "the velvet hammer" at 8.0% abv; which, by the way doesn't really show except for a general kind of 'presence' that it should have. I'm really impressed by this one! So what have I missed? Look - check. Smell - check, except at this point I'm finding it a little more generally "tropical" rather than more distinctly "citrusy. Taste - check, and following along with the aroma exactly. Ha! I just got a burp of some seriously pungent hop resins. There's some nice pine and a touch of apricot in there as well. Nice! But there's also something else going on in the flavor besides that that I just can't place. There's some papaya, some apple which is in almost every ale, a drizzle of pineapple juice, and maybe even a touch of honey-like sweetness from the malt but there's another note I just can't pull from my memory to put a tag on it. Is it like a kind of leafy spiciness? I'm not sure. There is a hint of spiciness, and a soft bit of citrus rind/chalky mineral as well but I'm still not clear on it. So, what else, the feel - check. Overall, as I've pointed out, this is a very smooth beer across the board. It's also really well balanced, and superbly rounded - there are no sharp edges here. It's dangerously drinkable. It lingers in the mouth quite pleasantly, constantly luring you back for another sip. I can only pray that they brew it again, or actually ask them to, because really, it would just be silly to pray, but I will go ask them, AND if I go back tonight it might still be on tap and I can grab some more!!!