Color differentiates it first off. This beer has more of a gold cast to it, and it is significantly more clear than its brother. This is just about as crystal clear as you can have while still having some color in you. The foam seemingly bursts out as the beer is poured, and I had to use a very light hand to manage to get as little head is possible for this picture. Once the bubbles go down, we're left with very little lacing; a relatively thick patch toward one side of the top of the beer is fairly resilient - like a lumberjack in a Maine winter. The aroma is pine with a hint of citrus and a bread malt.
First sip isn't particularly crushable, but it's not exactly putting me on my heels with flavor, either. The finish is really watery, but the front and seems loaded with pine and bitterness. The resulting beer is inexcusably unbalanced and in desperate need of care. I don't want to be too harsh; it is very unbalanced, but it's not exactly a horror show. The problem with being a good brewery is that the expectation level for your next beer gets very high. It's difficult for most breweries to manage to match the successes that they've had in previous iterations of beers.
Tip-in is medium carbonation burn with pine, resin, and very light tropical fruit. The middle sees an increase in carbonation burn and the pine rakes at the top of the mouth; all the while, a very light caramel malt and some hints of tropical fruits duck for cover under the tongue. The finish is a wet snap of bitterness before everything turns watery and the ghost of the pine is seen in the trail off.
Bottom Line: It has some heart to it, but it could use more soul.
2.5/5
