Most Excellent Stellar
Short's Brewing Company

12 ounce bottle into tulip glass, bottled on 3/16/2018. Pours fairly hazy golden orange/amber color with a 1-2 finger dense and rocky off white head with fantastic retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lasts. Thick soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Fantastic appearance. Aromas of grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, pineapple, apricot, mango, melon, citrus peel/rind, light pepper/pine, honey, caramel, toasted biscuit, herbal, and floral/grassy earthiness. Nice and pleasant aromas with good balance and complexity of citrus/fruity hops and dark/bready malt notes; with solid strength. Taste of big grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, pineapple, apricot, mango, melon, citrus peel/rind, light pepper, pine, honey, caramel, toasted biscuit, herbal, and floral/grassy earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, pineapple, apricot, mango, melon, citrus peel/rind, pepper, pine, honey, caramel, toasted biscuit, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness on the finish for a while. Great complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/fruity/earthy hops and dark/bready malt flavors; with a great malt/bitterness balance, and zero cloying/astringent flavors after the finish. Light-moderate increasing dryness from bitterness. Medium carbonation and medium-full body; with a very smooth, creamy/bready/sticky, and fairly resinous/rindy balanced mouthfeel that is great, Minimal warming alcohol for 9.5%. Overall this is a delicious DIPA. All around nice complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/fruity/earthy hops and dark/bready malt flavors; very smooth and easy to drink for the ABV with the modestly bitter/resinous/drying finish, not overly aggressive. Great Amarillo showcase as expected. Very juicy, dank, and earthy balanced hop complexity; nice sized bready malt backbone, with minimal residual sweetness from lingering bitter dryness. A very enjoyable offering, and impressive style example as expected. Did not like it as much as the base APA, but close.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poured from bottle to pint glass. Copper in color with a finger of off white foam. Nice citrus aromas, grapefruit and orange zest, lemon peel and cracker. Balance is tight, where the sweet malt hits against grapefruit pith in a way that's almost bitter but not too much. Lemon and floral notes compliment a clean finish.

I picked up a bottle of Short's Most Excellent Stellar in their newest variety pack. I Liked Stellar Ale and I'm interested to see how this one turns out so lets see how it goes. 2018 Vintage. Poured from a brown 12oz bottle into an IPA glass.

A- The label looks nice and it goes well with the name. It poured a hazy darker orange color that didn't really change when held to the light and it had a fingers and half of creamy of white head that was just a little bubbly and it died down to a thin ring that stayed till the end and it left some nice spotty lacing behind. This is good looking beer, I have no complaints.

S- The aroma starts off with a higher amount of sweetness with the hops being the first to show up and they impart some nice fruity hop aromas with orange and grapefruit seeming to sticking out the most with some light floral and dank green hops aromas in the background. Up next comes a little bit of creamy and buttery flavor that might be from the yeast and that goes into the malts which imparts some nice caramel malt, bready, bread crust and doughy aromas. This beer has a good aroma, it's fairly complex and all the aspects work well with each other.

T- The taste seems to be similar to the aroma and it starts off with a higher amount of medium sweetness with the hops still being the first to show up and they impart all the same aspects that they did in the aroma but this time there's more of a citrus rind aspect to it and the green and dank hops seem to show up just as much as the fruity flavors. Up next come the yeast which is a little doughy and it's followed by some noticeable alcohol. Towards the end comes the malts which impart all the same aspects that they did in the aroma, but this time they are a little bolder. On the finish there's a higher amount of bitterness with a little bit of noticeable alcohol and it had lots of hoppy and malty flavors in the aftertaste. This is a pretty nice tasting, the flavors are bold and live up to the style.

M- A little smooth, fairly creamy, a little crisp on the lighter side of being full bodied with a medium amount of carbonation. The mouthfeel is pretty nice and it works well with this beer.

Overall I thought this was a pretty nice beer and i thought it was a solid example of the style, it had all the key aspects that I look for in the style and it did still retain some of those Stellar Ale like flavors. This beer had ok drinkability, one would be my limit, it might become a little too much after that. What I like the most about this beer is the aroma and appearance, they were nice and the highlights of this beer. What I like the least about this beer is that it wasn't a little more smoother and drinkable. I might buy this beer again, but it isn't something I need again anytime soon. All in all I liked this beer, but I thought it was just a little rough around the edges.