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Fresh off a really enjoyable West Coast IPA, I move on to this one from Asheville, North Carolina. Burial has had a few beers on this blog before, and my general impression is that they know what they're doing, and they are a pretty decent brewery. A little experience and some more ability to try their wares on my end will probably shove them into the category of a go-to brewery. For now, this beer is produced in collaboration with Noble Beast, Highland Brewing, Resident Culture, and The Answer. I didn't know that five breweries could be involved in producing a single beer. Is it possible this is going to suffer from having too many cooks in the kitchen?
The beer pours notably darker than the last West Coast IPA I had, and it is orange at the top turning yellow at the thinner pieces of the glass. The head does not particularly erupt, but it is not so shy is to be virtually non-existent as some beers have had an issue with. This manages to retain quite a bit of its head, so a quarter inch of bubbles remains on top, and it leaves the beer looking very pretty. The aroma is fruit peels and flowers. I see on the can that they go out of their way to say it uses yuzu and calamansi. I assume those are types of hops, but I'm not going to look them up. I know the names of six or seven varieties of hops, but I don't think I'll ever know them all.
First sip is a bit of a head scratcher. Seems like it has fruit that wants to come out, but it's almost like the malt is fighting the fruit, and the result is a relative dead thud against the taste buds. It gives the sensation of being solid, but it's not bright and happy like most IPAs that are filled with juices. I can't say the first sip is making me a fan. It's like mango and tangerine have decided to just kind of splat onto the pallet with that kind of bread-crushed malt really dulling the effect of any of the hops. I don't know, maybe this is just the nature of these two kinds of hops, and maybe they'll get better in a swig.
Tip-in is grapefruit and apricot, but it's like they are being tasted through the flavor equivalent of a smoked mirror. The image is dull and it's just not particularly pleasant. The middle gets worse as bitterness and a salty tartness intrude, but flavors really don't assert themselves. The finish is possibly the worst part of the gulp with the salty bitterness and tartness conveying the idea of a bread that has been sitting around too long and has started to get a wet mold on it.
Bottom Line: Too many cooks have spoiled the beer.
0.5/5
