Spruce Willis Yippee Ki-Yay Mother #^@%*&
DuClaw Brewing Co.

3/18/22 Marilyn's of Morgantown on tap.

Right off the bat... Dave thinks car air freshener.... Not in a good way.

(Now here's Leah's review)
Aromas of slight pine and sugar. But the taste of spruce explodes in your mouth! I loved it at first. The best pine flavor over had in an IPA. However, as soon as Dave said "air freshener" it was over and ruined.
Sweet pine. It's good. But not worth the hype.

Hype? Who said anything about hype? It ain't no colossal thing.

From the bottom of the can: "CANNED ON 11/05/21"

Appearance: The body of the beer is a light gold color that is extremely hazy, almost to the point of being opaque. Very faint and fuzzy shadows are barely visible through it. The head is medium-sized, white, creamy with a touch of fluffy texture, and has both good retention and lacing.

Aroma: There isn't much aroma here. Something barely comes through but it doesn't have a consistent aroma. Sometimes it smells a bit like cabbage, sometimes it has a hint of orange, and sometimes it is slightly floral. All of these times it is very faint and the nose has to be nearly submerged to smell anything.

Taste: Orange and a touch of toffee comes through up front. Towards the middle of the palate the same flavors exist but are a bit stronger. The flavor stays the same to the back of the palate and in the finish. The beer mostly tastes like an old orange candy with a bit of malt flavor in it.

Mouthfeel: It is medium-light bodied with a wet finish and no real bitterness. It feels lackluster on the palate.

Overall: The can states that this is a "double IPA made with spruce tips." As a double IPA it is lacking in bitterness and flavor complexity, but the advertised and namesake spruce tips are also completely missing from the beer. The beer does have a nice orange candy flavor but it misses the intended mark. I wouldn't buy it again and I wouldn't recommend it.

A: golden amber, with a white head.

S: resinous, and slightly citrus.

T: that's intense. Resinous and perfumery with floral notes. Very interesting.

M: moderate and soft mouth feel, and a sweet finish.

O: overall a very interesting brew.

 

 

Appearance - Pours a cloudy golden peach with three fingers of frothy white head.

Smell - piney, citrus, earthy, leafy, and tropical hops, pine resin, grapefruit and citrus peel, light spruce notes, mango, peach, papaya, pineapple, bready malts, caramel, and earthy yeast.

Taste - piney, citrus, earthy, leafy, and tropical hops upfront. The bold pine resin and spruce notes come in next followed quickly by the grapefruit and citrus and peel. The mango, peach, papaya, pineapple, bready malts, caramel, and earthy yeast round out the brew.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes sticky with the spruce notes and tropical elements lingering.

Overall - An interesting take on a DIIPA by adding spruce tips and combining the west coast IPA elements alongside the New England IPA elements. I'm not one for New England IPAs anymore but this one was quite enjoyable as the spruce is noticeable but instead of pine tree branch in your face you get a nice balanced version of the spruce which is quite intriguing.

DuClaw Brewing Co. "Spruce Willis"
16 fl. oz. can coded "SPRUCE-11-101221 CANNED ON 11/05/21". Sampled on 01/24/22.
$4.49 @ Total Wine & More, Cherry Hill, NJ

Notes via stream of consciousness: Great name for an ale brewed with spruce tips. I guess they weren't fresh though but maybe that doesn't make that much of a difference. Or, maybe it's even better. It's also a double IPA at 8.2%. It's poured a hazy deep golden, almost orange colored body beneath a finger's width of white foam. The head seems to be holding up pretty well. Let's give it a smell... it's not as bright as I thought it would be but it is definitely spruce-like, and tropical. The flavor follows but it's not as spruce-like as I thought it would be given the aroma. It's more tropical though, with notes of peach, mango, and candied orange. It's not that bitter for being an IPA at 8.2%, which is nice, leaving it a little like some of the fruitier NEIPAs out there, and although the alcohol has a presence it doesn't really show. This could be a very dangerous beer in that sense as it's highly drinkable. In the mouth it's medium to medium-full in body, probably because of all the extra proteins that leave it hazy, and the carbonation is moderate which leaves it smooth. On that note, although the head held up fairly well to start it did drop, and the lacing is limited to tiny spots and splashes. It's not bad but it's no 4.25 out of 5. I was initially expecting something bolder and I'm glad it's not, and I really like the juxtaposition of the spruce in the aroma, and then more fruit in the flavor - although there is spruce there as well. Combine that with the moderate bitterness level and the softer carbonation and you've got yourself a winner!
Review #7,728

Poured into a grip shaped goblet: color is straw gold, slight haziness, head is off white with fine bubbles, then dissipates to whispy top with some spotty lacing.

Smell is subduded - limited spruce or pine character, subtle citrus and tropical fruit, maybe some herbal qualities, light maltiness.

Taste is a blend of honey like sweetness and light spruce tips with some citrus and herbal/earthy hop notes; malt and base hops are stronger than spruce tip character.

Mouthfeel is low/moderate carbonation, moderate sweetness, softer bitterness, more of a hazy/ne ipa feel than a dipa.

Overall a spruce tip beer mixed into a hazy ipa, spruce character is subdued and the sweetness/feel of the wheat detracts some from the spruce.

 

 

 

I CAN't remember being this CANspired to drink, review & rate a beer, especially on New Beer Sunday (Week 778)! My dear friend, @JackHorzempa found himself aced out of this beer on a recent visit to his purveyor & lamented his shortCANming in one of this site's forums. He did, however, find a new Stillwater beer in which I was interested. Hmm. When I found this one available as singles, I procured one for each of us with the thinking that perhaps I could put the touch to him for some of the Stillwater. When I got the Stillwater on my own, I decided to play sneaky Secret CANta & send him a CAN, unawares. 8=) I ran out of new 3 Stars beers for New DelMarVa (+ DC) Beer Sunday (Week 778) & while I was trying to decide between DuClaw & Key, Jack decided to make my CAN one of today's entries, making my decision easy.

From the CAN: "Brewed and CANned by DuClaw Brewing Co. Baltimore, Maryland"; "Ale Brewed with Spruce Tips"; "Double IPA"; "Craft Be Cherished, Rules Be Damned."; "You asked for miracles … we give you … Spruce Willis double IPA made with spruce tips. Do you like your beers explosive? Bursting with pine, mango, & grapefruit hop notes? Welcome to the party, pal. Yippee ki-yay, mother#^@%*&!"

How interesting that they are CANgnizent enough to distinguish between upper-case for the name & lower-case for the quote! These are my people.

I Crack!ed open the vent & despite knowing that it was one of the freshest CANs in my CANventory, I still went with a slow, gentle C-Line Glug into the awaiting glass. I watched in rapt fascination as it foamed up to form just under two fingers of dense, foamy, rocky, bone-white head with very good retention, slowly falling back to wisps, leaving loads of lacing in its wake. Color was a gorgeous Golden-Amber (SRM = > 5, < 7) with NE-quality clarity, enticing The Gelt Gang of Croesus, Mammon & Midas to stir off of my living room couch, where they were watching the AFC Championship Game, & come lazily into my kitchen for a taste. Nose was interesting in that where I was expecting a blast of pine, I got pine & tropical fruit, like mango or papaya. Whachoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?!? Gettin' loose with the Spruce? Hmm. Mouthfeel was medium-to-full, not quite creamy, but on the light side for the style. The taste was as equally interesting as the nose had been. It opened with a pronounced tropical fruit sweetness, either/both mango or papaya, followed by a cool wash of pine/evergreen mintiness. Hmm. The bitterness was CANpaatively low, which made me question their choice of whatever hops they were using to impart the tropical flavors. Finish was semi-dry, more tropical than pine. I felt like I was being left wanting. Wanting more bitterness, more of a spruce tip presence, more of an in-your-face, bodacious beer CANmensurate with its audacious name. YMMV.

 

 

 

Poured a golden-orange body with decent head and no lace. Aroma has that "Christmas" like aroma of pine trees but also a malty goodness with little bits of citric hops. Smooth, fuller bodied, heavy, bitterness is mild and on finish as this is a sweeter, heavier malt beer than usual for a DIPA, and both the malts and hops give off a slight tropical fruit/grapefruit like sweetness along with something close to caramel malt. Finishes easy and is worth sipping on.