Appearance: A soapy 2" off white foamed head with bubble eye consistency sets atop a predominantly clear amber/golden colored liquid. Appears to have a high carbonation as the CO2 rapidly rises to the surface. Eventually the head dissipates leaving a speckled foamed film and wet lacing on the sidesAroma: Fruity and quite estery to be honest. The malt bill is nice and toasted/biscuit with a carameled base. The hops finish out with a fruity, but also pine like. After a good swirl, the biscuit comes out a lot more along with an earthy resin.
Taste: Juicy is a word that characterizes my first impression. The basic caramel backbone along with subtle notes of honey hold through to the end maintaining a maltose sweetness - makes me think that this is a very young tasting, under-ripe beer. The midtaste takes the combination of the hops and the malt and thrusts a balanced fruitiness (raisins, plums and apricots) for a second or two before the resined alpha acids and the alcohol seep through to introduce new flavors. Some fruit skin tannins also arise from this interaction. Finishing is a relatively simplistic pine hop flavor with a nutty taste still drawn from the malt, but also orange peel and grassiness. Alcohol finishes in a vapored taste. By the end, once the beer warmed, I picked up a bit of a viney characteristic.Mouthfeel: Carbonation is mellow as it fizzes across the tongue, with a medium to heavier body. Sticky to the lips and cloying makes me think a little under-attenuated. Finishes very dry and resinous from the hops and alcohol.
Overall Impression: A bigger bodied IPA that went for a bigger malt base but still tried to give enough hop-age to balance it out. It worked relatively well, but still left a grainy-sweetness throughout. I did enjoy the complexity and the interactive flavors that were produced.
83/100
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