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I have a fear that I'm going to get lost in the sheer breadth of IPAs from Tailgate that I now have access to. They opened up a location in my area (Off Old Fort, as it happens), and I have found myself frequenting that location much more than any previous brewery or bar. At least, any that I can remember within the last decade or so. I don't normally go out to drink, but the idea of something that is brewery-fresh and a short drive away is something that's hard to pass up. As a result, don't be surprised if you see a lot more Tailgate beers on this site in the near future.
Well, she pours like an IPA. There isn't a whole lot of carbonation, and I don't know if maybe I was lulled into a false sense of security with the last batch of growlers that I picked up from Tailgate. The person who filled them clearly knew what to do, and they managed to retain their carbonation all the way to the last glass. This time, it doesn't seem to be all that carbonated, but that might just be this particular beer. The cornflower yellow beer doesn't have much of a head, as I said, and it fizzles down to an ink blot of a covering over the top of the beer with the strong ring around the sides. The aroma is tropical over citrus, and it smells darn good. The malt doesn't appear to be intruding very much, so it's hard to get a handle on exactly how it is going to taste.
First sip is a very unexpected skunk beginning, but it mellows out by the end. I'm not sure if the skunk was intentional or not, but I suspect it was not. I was recently talking to a friend about Lucky Buddha and the idea that some beers actually intend on having a bit of a skunk to them as a kind of counterbalance to the sweet instead of bitterness. I, for myself, dislike a skunk taste in a beer at all, but I can tolerate it better than, say, coffee.
Tip-in is the slight skunk, but it's fleeting before tropical fruits take over and nominal carbonation starts up. The middle isn't great; the fruits are skins and seed with a bitterness that just isn't grooving. The finish is bitter and too skunky to enjoy.
Bottom Line: I don't know how I could ensure that it was more fresh, but it needs to be fresher.
1.0/5
