The Devil's Hopyard
Connecticut Valley Brewing
- From:
- Connecticut Valley Brewing
- Connecticut, United States
- Style:
- Imperial IPA
- ABV:
- 8.6%
- Score:
- +9 ratings needed
- Avg:
- 3.68 | pDev: 0%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 1
- Status:
- Inactive
- Rated:
- Aug 25, 2020
- Added:
- Aug 25, 2020
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 0
NO SCORE
-
-
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Reviewed by ichorNet from Massachusetts
3.68/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
3.68/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
This is my very first experience with CT Valley Brewing Co. I'm not sure why I've avoided their stuff so far because I've definitely seen their beer around here and there, but it just never really stood out to me. The can here was kinda cool, with a comic book vibe that has the beginning of a cheesy narrative story about "HopMan" (yeah, really original guys... sigh), and it's a big ol' NEIPA featuring a double dry-hop addition of three great varietals: Citra, Mosaic, and El Dorado. If this isn't very good, I might just consider my instincts to be working and to pass on their beers in the future... however, if it's good, I'll feel a bit bad for passing them up. Let's see what side of the fence I happen to fall on.
The pour is kind of what I expected. Looks like an opaque glass of pulpy orange-pineapple juice with a solid if uneventful head of slightly-off-white foam that leaves behind a modicum of lace. Good legs and some slight surface haze means it stays away from being entirely boring, but I'm not super-impressed right off the bat. Let's see if some nice DDH with good hops can change that, shall we?
Right away, I pick up a whiff of yeastiness that doesn't really allay my fears. I have high hopes for DDH DIPAs with good, tried-and-true hop varietals thanks to talented breweries like Finback and Mast Landing etc. doing great work with them consistently. It just doesn't have a ton of brightness or pop to it, like it's somehow holding back on me. I get a bit of peach and melon with some grassy undertones and pithy citrus fruit, but it's all "been-there-done-that" to me, unfortunately, which is something I tend to be forgiving on if it's done well. After all, not every beer has to be new and exciting, but it should at least be impressive. Perhaps my can is a bit old, but it only has a "best before" date of 12/8/20 so I don't know exactly when it was canned.
My first few sips are similarly lacking a lot of the character I associate with these hops, instead coming across as kind of a boring melange of dull citrus, cleaning solution chemical-ness, stone fruit, and random bitterness that just doesn't fit with the idea of a juicy NEIPA in this day and age. Man, this is definitely disappointing to drink, but I also feel somewhat oddly vindicated because I just somehow knew this brewery didn't seem fully trustworthy. Turns out they make a ton of seltzers, wine cooler-esque things, and just an absolute truckload of different IPAs. Can't imagine they're that great, honestly, though they seem to have some highly rated brews. I will say that one thing this has going for it is a nice, soft mouthfeel that actually doesn't have the beer tasting very strong whatsoever. I bet some people out there will enjoy this one, but I don't count myself as one of them.
Aug 25, 2020The pour is kind of what I expected. Looks like an opaque glass of pulpy orange-pineapple juice with a solid if uneventful head of slightly-off-white foam that leaves behind a modicum of lace. Good legs and some slight surface haze means it stays away from being entirely boring, but I'm not super-impressed right off the bat. Let's see if some nice DDH with good hops can change that, shall we?
Right away, I pick up a whiff of yeastiness that doesn't really allay my fears. I have high hopes for DDH DIPAs with good, tried-and-true hop varietals thanks to talented breweries like Finback and Mast Landing etc. doing great work with them consistently. It just doesn't have a ton of brightness or pop to it, like it's somehow holding back on me. I get a bit of peach and melon with some grassy undertones and pithy citrus fruit, but it's all "been-there-done-that" to me, unfortunately, which is something I tend to be forgiving on if it's done well. After all, not every beer has to be new and exciting, but it should at least be impressive. Perhaps my can is a bit old, but it only has a "best before" date of 12/8/20 so I don't know exactly when it was canned.
My first few sips are similarly lacking a lot of the character I associate with these hops, instead coming across as kind of a boring melange of dull citrus, cleaning solution chemical-ness, stone fruit, and random bitterness that just doesn't fit with the idea of a juicy NEIPA in this day and age. Man, this is definitely disappointing to drink, but I also feel somewhat oddly vindicated because I just somehow knew this brewery didn't seem fully trustworthy. Turns out they make a ton of seltzers, wine cooler-esque things, and just an absolute truckload of different IPAs. Can't imagine they're that great, honestly, though they seem to have some highly rated brews. I will say that one thing this has going for it is a nice, soft mouthfeel that actually doesn't have the beer tasting very strong whatsoever. I bet some people out there will enjoy this one, but I don't count myself as one of them.
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