CB's Fresh Hop Harvest Ale
CB Craft Brewers

 

This brew was served from the tap at Tap and Mallet in Rochester, NY. The beer arrived in a Southern Tier Brewing Company pint glass and showed transparent honey-goldenrod coloring. It held a one finger head of tight, white microbubbles. This showed okay retention, leaving spidery lacing around the glass as the liquid disappeared. Aggregates of bubbles held firmly to the top of the liquid, making it look much like the agar of a bacterial culture. Carbonation appeared high, and there was zero haze or sediment. The aroma was wet with truly fresh hops. It laid heavy in the nose, with equal weight being given from syrupy grapefruity and orange. Rind was in the mix too, but the nose otherwise filled with enhanced sweetness from sugar-saturated peaches, pineapples, and strawberries. Lactics and fresh grassiness came with warmth, but otherwise the nose was just very juicy, sweet, hoppy, and wet. Our first impression was that the flavoring was solid, but tended to taper off quickly at the end, with strong metallics and adjuncts. The beer opened with bitter pale malts and fresh piney, and citric hops, with rind, dirt, stems, and all. The middle peaked with dill and oregano spice, and more bittering from the hops and citric rind. By this point the malts began to wash away, with bites of plastic phenols marking the transition to the finish, which showed juicy, fruity sweetness of cherries and plums, with washed out barley nubs and biting grassy hops. The aftertaste breathed of bitterness of those same fresh hops, with nice juiciness of the same fruit from the finish, as well as the aromatic fruity sweetness of the nose. The body was medium, and carbonation was medium to high. The beer gave a serious astringency, with those finishing metallics and hoppy bites, but otherwise there was nice slurp, froth, cream, and pop. The drying bite extended along the length of the tongue and through to the back of the throat. The abv was appropriate, and the beer drank pleasantly.

Overall, what we enjoyed most about this brew was the intensity to the aroma. It was just so heavy and saturated with fruit, sugars, and hoppy glory. It was actually very surprising on the first whiff. The taste followed nicely, and the sugars were much more subdued than expected, but everything petered out a bit too much for our liking by the end of the sip. Otherwise, this was a tasty, refreshing beverage, and a nice effort from a great local brewery.