Can share at Leighton’s pad. Thanks to me in host for breaking out this. Pours hazy golden with a head that dissipates. Aroma is citrus, pine and tropical fruits. Taste is a juicy hop bomb but we’ll balanced. A bit of dank pine. Great stuff!

From can and tap a couple of times. Smells really good with lots of nice hops. Hazy colour, nice hoppy flavour.

Pounder from a friend. Thanks Major Tom! Oak, pineapple, overripe grapefruit nose. Cloudy amber, medium head, good retention, some lacing. Grapefruit, pineapple, pine, oak, thistle. Medium body, easy carbonation, resinous. Extremely hoppy, nice sharp bitter bite. I would have liked a maltier balance, but that’s the most trivial nit pick. Yeah, it’s worth the hype.

Can, courtesy of Casp. Finally getting the chance to try this! Nose is clogged, but I hear that is not important for this beer anyway. Thick, heavy, fruity, intense. Very, very tasty. Some pines, some tropical stuff. Long fruity mango finish, very nice. Good stuff.

Can from the brewery, less than a week old. A completely opaque straw gold with a juicy sweet fruity hop bouquet of orange blossoms, prickly pear and mild pine. Med-full bodied with a relatively soft mouthfeel and a super dry finish. The taste lives up to the hype with tons of juicy hops playing all over the spectrum from fruity to peppery to piney this is good stuff but wasn’t mind-blowing or anything.

Cans and draught since the second-coming of Alchemist (post-flood), most recently on draught at the new brewery, 7/8/16. Never did manage to have it pre-flood. Seems like I was always missing it by a week or a few days. But I’m confident it’s as good as it always was. Tough to rate these sacred cows. What more could I possibly say here for its 1,482nd rating? I generally shy away from rating the big boys like this (haven’t really wanted to log a rate for Westy 12, for the same reason). But whatever. Of Focal, Crusher and this, that I had on draught at the new brewery, this was the weakest of the three. Not by a huge margin, but a noticeable one. A bit too much garlic and cat/sweat, moreso than in other batches I’ve had. Probably a pretty standard problem with beers of its nature, though I do think it still remains highly enjoyable. Lots of sweat, lemon rind, light pineapple and dank spiciness. Good, dry, crackery malts back it and the yeast is clean, providing no alcohol or flaws. Soft melon/watermelon as it warms, emerges, enjoyably so. Fantastically soft texture, with a dry nature overall, but still a malty-soft feel to it with mostly tight carbonation. Bitterness is certainly felt, but never becomes overbearing/fatiguing. Gains various levels of tropical fruit and citrus depending on how fresh it is. I do love the dryness and overall understated hop character. It’s always enjoyable seeing people that don’t understand it drink it for the first time and complain that they don’t think it’s very good and don’t get what the big deal is; since I’m a cynical asshole.

Fresh can drunk 6/1/23. Minimal haze. Small, white head, moderately-low retention. The nose is a mix of apricot, sweat, noticeable pine and light Mosaic spice with some light scallion/garlic character, but not offensive amounts. Crackery, light malts, no alcohol, no resin or booze in the nose. I guess this is more or less what it was. Understated, but still bitter hop notes, with a very soft, very dry body and texture, yet still amply malted. Yeah, I mean, the industry changes/catches up and now this is just another IPA, albeit a good one. But I'm fine keeping my rating as you've gotta have a sense of respect for how far ahead of it's time and groundbreaking this was when it came out. And the consistency still seems excellent. Still a well-made, enjoyable beer, and a nice change of pace, actually, given the massive amount of no bitterness IPAs out there.