I remember when I debated with myself and gave in to create the Double New England IPA label for use in this blog (over on the right hand side, there's a little pop-out that lets you peruse the many labels I've created for indexing stuff here). This is only my fourth of this style of beer, and it makes me wonder if it was worth the effort. I'm not imagining many people are actually reading this blog, let alone using the labels I'm creating, but I made the choice, and I'm sticking to it.
This here is a very hazy beer that is quite similar to the others in this category. The color of the beverage is bright orange, and the head of leaves quite a bit of lacing down the sides of the glass. The remaining blotchy remnants are mostly medium sized bubbles with clusters of tiny bubbles around them. The aroma of citrus and tropical juices spray from the top of the beverage, and they are hypnotic.First sip is juicy enough, but I had really expected quite a bit of bitterness from all the hops necessary to engender this kind of juice into the beverage. Instead, the overall beer is a little tart and sweet. The oranges, papaya, grapefruit, tangerines, nectarines, plums, and all sorts of other fruits are mingling well and creating a fairly harmonious beverage first sip. I'm not entirely sure how this is going to translate for a swig, but I'm willing to go in for a try.
Tip-in is relatively sedate orange, grapefruit, and mango spritz with an accompanying tartness and very mild carbonation tingle. The middle flows into a gentle, loving mix of fruit juices with a sweetness that can only be imbued by a malt that is so bashful that I can't place it. The finish is the only place where disharmoniousness rears its head a little with a bitter tinge and a sudden jumbling of the fruits that jostles them out of their neatly manicured positions.
Bottom Line: An excellent and tasty beverage.
4.25/5