What Beer Are You Drinking Now? #2094

Good morning BA, have a great Sunday! My parents came up yesterday to visit and are going to leave today at some point. They took a hotel suite room instead of my apartment. Still going to have my usual bottle returns, laundry, and grocery run later on; but probably later than usual.

Fantastic DIPA again this year, glad it returned. Aromas and flavors of big grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, peach, mango, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, melon, berry, lemon/orange peel, light pepper, and pine hops; with moderate honey, caramel, toasted bread malts; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-full bodied; balanced creamy/bready malts and sticky hops in the mouthfeel. Some resins and increasing bitter dryness, no hop astringency. Mildly warming 8%, dangerously smooth. Super juicy and fairly dank hop complexity; nice bready malt backbone, with mild lingering sweetness. Tastes the same as I remember, but a bit less aggressively bitter/drying. Great Mosaic hop showcase.


Was happy to find a lot last year. Grocery stores seemed to get a lot of it. This was insane as usual. Aromas and flavors of huge milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, vanilla, toffee, molasses, bourbon, toasted oak, raisin, plum, fig, cherry, and dates; with lighter notes of leather, tobacco, licorice, coconut, and smoke. Touch of booze on the nose as it warmed, but not overwhelming. Mild roast/char bitterness and bourbon/oak tannin spiciness balances the residual sweetness absolutely perfectly on the finish. Full bodied creamy, silky, velvety, and rich mouthfeel that is amazing. Slight slickness, chalky roast, and oak tannins. Slightly increasing bitter/tannin dryness, no cloying sweetness. Amazing balance between the malt, dark fruit, and bourbon barrel complexity. Mildly increasing warmth of 14.7%, no barrel booze. Dangerously smooth sipper. Definitely need to update my review from 6 years ago. This is just as amazing as I remember from way earlier batches. Never bought anything newer than 2013 actually. Glad I have 5 more. Phenomenal! Hopefully we see some variants this year, but I won't get my hopes up.


Cheers

 

Fantastic NEIPA. Aromas and flavors of big tangerine, grapefruit, lemon, lime, peach, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, mango, melon, berry, citrus peel/rind, light pepper, and pine hops; with moderate wheat, white bread dough malts; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation and body; balanced bready/grainy malts and sticky hops in the mouthfeel. Some resins/rinds and increasing lingering bitter dryness. No hop astringency. Very drinkable, not overly aggressive, 6.75%. A bit more drying that expected for the style; but the hops are super vibrant, juicy, dank, and earthy. Nice bready malt backbone with minimal residual sweetness. Looking forward to trying the other single hop Evolutions eventually. Glad these hit distribution last month. Ellison is definitely a new local favorite since they started distributing last year. Very impressive across all styles, even pale lagers.


Wow! Aromas and flavors of huge pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger bread, vanilla, rum, toasted oak, toffee, brown sugar, and brown bread; with light notes of molasses, chocolate, cocoa, and dark fruits. Light herbal/spice bitterness and rum/tannic oak spiciness on the finish. Medium-full bodied; balanced bready/grainy creaminess, spice stickiness, and oak tannins in the mouthfeel. Increasing spicy/tannic dryness, no astringent spice/oak flavors. Minimal warmth, zero barrel booze. Insane smoothness. Absolutely perfectly balanced between malt, spice, and rum barrel complexity. 23 months old, and still on the local shelves. For 17.5% you'd have no idea. Even better than when I reviewed it at 8 months old. Would get another.


Cheers