World Champ
Highland Park Brewery

 

 

 

 

 

Canned 8/14/19.
L: hazy dull yellow with defined haze but not quite murky. About 2 fingers of head with heaps of residual lacing. Great looking brew.
S: Mango, lemon and a hint of booze. Smells fruity and sweet.
T: Pineapple, mango, orange and lemon with grassy finish. Mild sweetness that carries over to the aftertaste with very minimal booze flavor.
F: Light in body and in weight. Feels a bit thin for other beers in the style. Booze is evident but not boozy necessarily.
O: An enjoyable brew from Highland Park. It is simple and effective, and drinking rather refreshing on this warm day. I am very glad to try. Cheers!

 

Looking at this beer and then sipping it was like the first time I ever saw the staggering and angelic Gene Tierney. Uncanny. Stupendous. Mind altering... Do yourself a favor and google “Gene Tierney Razor’s Edge,” and try and not lose your figurative sh*t. Yeah, then imagine that sight poured from a keg.

I’m done here. Time to get back to chugging this goodness.

Straight pour from a 16oz can to a teku (HP sad cat/fierce cat stem). This has a canning date of March 5, 2019 printed in black ink on the heel of the can, right at the base (“Canned On 03.05.19”). This is incredibly legible, which is refreshing. That would make the beer five days old at the time of consumption—purchased earlier today at the brewery!

Appearance (4.0): Two solid fingers of custard-colored foam rise off of the pour, capping a very hazy but not quite murky, pale yellow-tan body with subtle orange undertones. The cap dies away at a restrained pace, leaving a moonscaped surface with rocky, pock-marked foam crawling up the side of the glass to link the beer to a chunky, craggy, broken collar. So-so body, great head, but I’m digging how chunky the lacing is.

Smell (4.5): A silky mixture of sweet tangerine and subtly musky, funky passionfruit rind rise out of the glass, resolving into a marriage between passionfruit/papaya on one side of the family and gooseberry on the other. There’s a gentle malt scaffolding that takes form underneath, showing a slightly starchy, floury body resembling southern dumplings, baking soda biscuit crusts and common crackers. No sign of booze. As it opens up, passionfruit and gooseberry really come forward.

Taste (4.5): Oofa doofa, this is straight up juice but of the strangest variety. The hops unequivocally dominate from the start, throwing off tart gooseberry, lemon curd and lemon hard candies, and a bunch of musky resin that’s hard to pin down—it’s like a weird marriage between terp-heavy ganja and that musky type of papaya I remember eating in Brazil. It’s buoyed by a grassy twang that comes with the first sip, and transitions into a kind of taught, tart bitterness. Malt is, like in the nose, fairly understated, offering a somewhat starchy, biscuit crust- and oyster cracker-aligned, floury body. A touch of pain de campagne crust peeks through. Yellow grapefruit zest muscles its way into the mix, too, scraping away the weird, weedy, tropical accretion of flavors that came before, also serving to mask a moderate booziness that previously melded smoothly with the papaya and weed. The finish is pronounced and electric at first, but dissipates into a soft, grassy bitterness that feels eminently pleasant as it trails off. I’m super into this weirdness.

Mouthfeel (4.25): This strikes a nice balance between what I *hope* Highland Park (D)IPAs would be and what they often are, which is under-realized. Carbonation lays down a soft, tingly blanket of micro-bubbles, while the full-side of medium-weight body explores all reaches with a silky, juicy swish and tasteful, slightly starchy dryness. It washes out with a nice, balanced, tingly flourish, leaving only a very soft, parching feeling stemming from slightly volatile hop compounds and a starchy body. I ain’t complaining, it’s a joy to drink.

Overall (4.25): I am very, very pleased with this beer. Oftentimes I come away from Highland Park’s (D)IPAs feeling like they have a ton of potential: I enjoy the crap out of the aroma and flavor, but frequently find the appearance and feel a bit lacking, in ways that suggest (to me) like they just need a few more days of conditioning or a defter hand at certain critical points in the brewing process. The Veil does this a lot, too, cranking out fun to drink, but kind of burning, slightly sloppy hop bombs; Highland Park is at least a little subtler. Even so, I always enjoy these beers. This is one feels a little more patient and precise, and the result is a well-curated display of hops’ weirdness. The aroma and flavor both showcase just how funky hops can be, without being off-putting in any way. I’m a sucker for beers like this that show lots of passionfruit and grassy bitterness. Highly recommended.

 

Canned on 8/10 - consumed on 8/12 - poured from a tall-boy into my Town Hall Brewery tulip.

Opaque, peach/champagne yellow body rests beneath a low ivory collar and surface slick. Fine sandy lacing; average retention.

Tropical snow-cone aromatics - floral and fruity - passion-fruit, pineapple, and tangerine along with low herbal notes hinting at thai basil. Outstanding.

Juicy, bitter-sweet palate entry suggests Ugli fruit, kiwi, peach, and mango. Dries out somewhat in the finish with a faint white tea note and a touch of minerality. Low bitterness, but potent hop flavor throughout. Possibly some lactose involved? Has a Sunny D quality, though not in a bad way.

Creamy, zesty, medium-full bodied mouth-feel. Rich yet refreshing. ABV well concealed.

Mosaic, Citra, and Vic Secret are an excellent combination in this beer - all elevating one another.