Holidaze Haze IPA
Matt Brewing Company / Saranac Brewery

 

 

Not bad. Better than I expected. Pours a hazy gold. Good tropical hop aroma. Good smooth hop flavor. Slight bitter finish. Worth a try.

 

 

 

 

Pours golden yellow with a 1/4 inch white head, which quickly dissipates. hazy.

Aroma of grapefruit, orange, pine, floral.

Taste is grapefruity, lemony. Excellent bitterness.

Medium bodied, light carbonation. Dry finish.

A pretty good hazy IPA.

Poured from a 12oz can into a Speiglau pilsner glass.

Look is a yellow orange hazy with a thin white head.

Aroma is astringent lemon orange.

Taste is less citrusy and more herbal.

Solid IPA.

 

Look: Golden, light orange color with a one finger head of white foam. Opaque. Decent head retention, but leaves very little lacing.

Aroma: Fairly weak nose. Some waxy bitter orange and that's essentially it. Some vague underlying grassyness, probably from the addition of calypso hops.

Taste: Pleasantly surprised after smelling the rather anemic nose. Upfront a brief exposure to some waxy grapefruit peel, quickly followed by caramel malt, almost to the degree of toffee. Peaches and cream. Honey and granola. Apricot jam. Ends on more waxy grapefruit peel.

Feel: Moderate carbonation. Mid-heavy body.

Overall: I like the choice of hops they used here. This is a good winter warmer type of IPA with a sweet malt backbone and plenty of waxy bitterness to complement. Budget IPA that offers decent flavor and hearty texture without being one dimensional.

 

From a can stamped 2889 08:26 . No markings on the box that would give any indication of canning/boxing/store-receipt date.

Pours a deep, slightly orangey, gold. Fairly ample , long-lasting, yellowish-ivory head, that leaves a couple inches of moderate lacing.

Smell is mixed citrus, but more reminiscent of candied rinds, rather than fresh fruit. Hints of Douglas Fir ([fruity + pine-ish] but not pine), a mild floral element(chamomile?), and a faint bit of wet grass. A little tangerine, and doughy malt pops up as I swirl the glass. All-in-all not in the typical hazy juice-bomb NEIPA vein, but not classic, old-school WCIPA either.

Taste is orange rind, with a bit of dried(?) pine and grass . The pine and grass elements are that of a few needles still stuck to last year's kissing ball core, and hay that was cut 2 days ago, but not yet cured. That is, not the "just-cut" flavors, that are typical. Moderate bitterness , that masks some of the flavor on the latter half of the tasting. Nothing exciting, or complex ; fairly simple and straight-forward.

Feel is medium, with fine, moderate carbonation tingle, that builds slightly, towards the drying finish.

Overall, not bad , but nothing good enough to make me want more. I'll drink the other five without regret, maybe as a palate-cleanser between other, more distinctive brews(better or worse ;)), but I won't be getting more of it. This might be a good one to blend with IPAs that are sweeter than you prefer,or have gone flat, or are flawed in some noticeable way. The flavor on this one is subdued, so would add some bitterness and citrus, but otherwise stay in the background.

 

 

On tap at Avenue Pub in Rochester, NY.

This one pours a clear (not hazy) dark orange color, with a small head, and a lot of lacing.

This smells like sweet and stale hops, caramel malt, booze, and harsh weedy hops.

This beer is kind of a bummer. It doesn't really succeeed on any level here. It's simultaneously too sweet and also too bitter at the same time, with a stale and vegetal bitterness, plus an overly sweet malt character.

This is thin, and not super drinkable - it was a chore to finish.

File this under hard no.

Pours a pale hazy amber leaning towards yellow and green with a cream colored head.

Pine, citrus, spice, and floral in the nose.

Citrus, pine, and floral hops up front with a slight bread malt middle. It finishes dry with bitter herb notes.