First sip is a bit harsh. It's not a subtle beer, and it requires more patience than just tossing some beer in your mouth and slurping it down. Nevertheless, I can say that the sip was like pounding a nail made from hops into the back of my tongue. I like hops in general, but beaten by the hop monster is not what I'm looking for. I need to drink this like it wants to be drunk.
Tip-in is high carbonation and light citrus hops. The middle is a kind of caramel with the flowers in the hops being brought right out to dance around on the top of the mouth for a while. It's fairly delightful. The finish is a bit harder on the mouth with a sharp bitter bite from the hops that is wrestled with by the malt. The hops wins the battle, but the fact that the malt jumps in at all is nice to taste. It cuts the bitterness enough to smooth out what would otherwise be rumble strips of hops. As with a lot of these beers lately, it improves as it turns from cold to cool. That sip issue was a bit of a fluke because it was too cold. This beer is pretty darn good.
4.0/5