Dancing Gnome "Digging Fork" IPA

Fresh from the bowels of Pittsburgh comes a revisit of a brewery that was quite a joy to go to. Dancing Gnome has a lot of good beers on their menu at the brewery seemingly all year round, but I notice that they seem to be very IPA heavy, and those IPAs tend to be unfiltered to the point of being spitting images of the much more scarce these days Bearded Iris. This time, I brought back an official glass from the brewery, so I didn't even have to guess what glass to use for the picture. That said, I have plenty of IPA glasses.

Unsurprisingly, the unfiltered beer is incredibly hazy and has a somewhat yellow ting to the otherwise orange beverage. Even with the little bit of room I left for the head, it's going to leave lacing in its wake as the microscopic bubbles leave a few naked patches in an otherwise covered cap. The aroma takes no effort to find, and it is laden with peels, grains, and what I believe is an interesting yeast that I have already tasted in a previous beverage, but I don't remember which dancing gnome beer it was.

First sip is quite good. It holds a bit of bitterness, but it manages to compensate with a fairly juicy flavor. A dull dryness comes on after the beer is already drunk, and fruit rinds are with it. This is a decent sipping beer, but I could see that this would get difficult for someone who is not particularly into IPAs. The flavor may be a bit strident for a simple sip. Fortunately, we do more than sip around here.

Tip-in is mild (but swelling) carbonation sizzle with sweet tropical over citrus fruits that mesh quite nicely. The middle is an early start to the dryness that goes across the top of the mouth as the fruit meat loses all of the juice across the tongue and a slight bitterness comes with the grains. The finish is where the fruit juice is cut off to allow just an afterglow of the fruit as dryness and bitterness slowly seep into the grains and yeast.

Bottom Line: Possibly a bit challenging but also rewarding.

3.25/5