8th October 2015
42nd Floor Tasting. Many thanks to Paul for more fresh hoppy goodness. Hazy yellow - gold beer, small pale cream colour head. Palate is airy and semi dry, modest fine carbonation. Dank skunky hoppy nose. Spicy orange hops, tropical fruits, floral pine. Mild Mosaic passion fruit comes to the fore. Some minty spice before a light semi dry finish. Very nice.

Batch 1 750mL bottle from the source, drunk 9/12/15 (early birthday present to myself). Milkshake/semi-milkshake pour, despite 3 week cold fridge treatment. Very large white head audibly fizzles away to nothing...hmmm, that’s weird and very un-Trillium-like. So now I’m left with a headless, murky copper-apricot body. Galaxy very heavily apparent in the nose. Smells much like the Proclamation Derivative. And that smelled good albeit chalk full of galaxy, which I really detest. Fruity, yes, with mango and pineapple but there’s that punchy, oniony quality to galaxy hops which is so uninviting. Really not getting much other than that. Malt seems well-attenuated as always, giving off light biscuits, pinches of honey and the yeast quality seems fine; no aspirin or any of that nonsense. Alcohol very well-concealed, as well, with no flaws. In the mouth it’s full of tropical fruits, light pine accents and strong lemony-grapefruit character. Basically all galaxy though a bit of apricot and earthiness break through on the end, compliments of the mosaic. Malts are rather sweet, with lots of pale malt sugars doing nothing to help this galaxy punchiness. Carbonation is fizzy and loose, very out-of-character for Trillium which usually excels at producing a creamy, ultra-tight textured mouthfeel. Instead you have a watery, slick texture that highlights too much maltiness. Bitterness is moderate to high, with some sediment dullness and more sluggish malt flavor. Alcohol pretty well in check, on the bright side, but that’s about all I can say for this one. Damn, this is really uninviting and I see why absolutely no one wanted to trade for these. Same peculiar capsaicin-like spiciness that builds up on the palate and lingers. Barely finished one pour and the rest is going down the drain. Sadface. Batch 1, drunk 11/12/15. At a whopping nearly 3 months in the fridge, it still comes out soupy. Sadly the head phenomenon was not the previous bottle only. Still quickly fizzles to nothing. Uh oh. This dosent seem much better....Same heavily garlicy, cat pee and aspirin heavy flavor profile as before, albeit with two months for some of it to fade and the yeast to do a little houskeeping. I’ve had about 7 ounces and already I think the end is near for this bottle.... Regarding the above ratings, it just reinforces small sample sizes skewing the perception of a beer; while I don’t even like 4 ounces of this, it’s much, much more enjoyable if that’s all you drink of it, as the garlic/catpee/aspirin/onion has no time to build up and the citrus and tropical fruits hold them in check. As well, you’re not bogged down by the extremely sluggish, thick maltiness. That anyone likes this kind of hop schedule when there are beers like UpperCase and Mettle out there, blows my mind, but to each his own. As well, this is nothing like the bright, fluffy texture/carbonation that Trillium is known for. 6/2/5/2/9 Batch 2 on draught at the Canton brewery, 9/9/16. Still no head to speak of; it fizzles away immediatley. Pure soup appearance otherwise. Still has that intense Galaxy nose to it, showing both enjoyable, spicy, dank, green notes and less enjoyable, twangy, lightly resinous, pine and tangy pineapple. I still get a light medicinal/saccharine-like note to it, as well. But as it warms and breathes, it opens up more allowing more dank, green, lush, juicy notes (mango and melon) to come forth, and leaving less of the undesirable character. In the mouth it’s soft, malty, well-attenuated though still lightly sweet. Juicy and moderately bitter, with less punchy-twang than I remember (though some remains). Better texture, which was one of my biggest complaints last year. Tighter carbonation here, for sure. Good, but definitely on the low end of beers I like from Trillium. 7/3/7/3/14. Score is an average of two years. Batch 4 can drunk 9/2/18 and on draught at Row 34, 9/3/18. This is markedly different than the prior two years. It has continued to soften and is nothing like batch 1 while being even more juicy and drinkable and less green and bitter than batch 2. Quite nice and one of their better 8% DIPAs though I still prefer the extreme juice of DDH Congress and Upper Case. 7/4/8/4/15. Batch ?? draught at Canton, 8/31/23. Turbid OJ, white head instantly to edge. Juicier, softer nose, no harsh/resinous notes, no aspirin/cat piss/onion. Plentiful, honey-like malt. Juicy, spicy for sure, some onion in the background. Noticeably less thick, hop-dense, intense than previous batches. Kind of just a ubiquitous DIPA now, though it's still aggressively hopped. Actually getting a good deal of aspirin on the end. Moderate bitterness. 8/4/7/4/15