Platform "Paranormal Mosaic" West Coast IPA

The West Coast IPAs seem to have fallen out of favor as the craft brewers moved to New England IPAs or hazy IPAs, or some turned to the dark side and started putting out sours. Looking at Platform's record... oh. I only had one from them before, so I actually don't have much to go on. The last one was a gift from my brother, and he has good taste in beer, so Platform might be an up-and-comer.

Bright has a meaning. When it comes to beer, it means basically that the beer is clear. A standard pilsner or kolsch is noteworthy because of the level of brightness. Before pilsners, all beer was murky and more like what you might imagine a grog to look like (and most of them do look like that). Bright is the opposite of most of the Bearded Iris beers. I'm going on about this because this can says that the beer is bright, but the beer is mildly to moderately hazy in its golden depths with a nice enough head that stays on top of the beer like a passed out Ohioan in front of a bar at 1AM. The aroma is fairly malty for an IPA, but it has citrus and tropical fruits to even it out. 

First sip is prickly and dry. Those aren't all the sensations, but a sip tends to be unforgiving to complex beers. You get to look through a keyhole at the opera house that is the beer, and sometimes the impression is only that - an impression. And the impression of this is prickly and dry. The grains are trying to soften the blow, but the hops are just bringing a bitter afterglow without the taste I'm looking for in them. The gulp should solve this.

Tip-in is mild carbonation tingle with apricot, orange, and grapefruit rinds mixing with a cracker malt. The middle is where the heart of the beer would usually be found, and this heart is smooth and filled with fruit juice mixing with the thick, soothing malt. The finish is dry with fruit meat that leads to a bitter trail-off.

Bottom Line: Complex and pretty good.

2.75/5