7.8

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

I think it’s about 9% abv now. This one smells strongly of evergreens. The flavor is very hoppy with spruce and berries. Mmm… Xmas trees. It turns out that yes, I do want to drink a Xmas tree. Sort of. It’s very good and is certainly unusual.

7.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Canned 10/04/23, drunk 12/23/23. Clear bronze-amber. Small, off-white head, modest retention. Nose is lots of blue spruce but rounded out with smoke malts and citrus and piney hops. Would think it would be too much to add these highly bitter adjuncts to already bitter, dry, resinous hops, bit it mostly works. Soft malts, no big toastiness, thankfully. Spice of all sorts. Juicy spruce, even. Dry, bitter, pleasantly so, finish. Shockingly balanced though you have to love conifer tips. Low on cranberry and juniper, thankfully. Good malt depth and attenuation. Wouldn't want to drink more than 8 or 10oz, but it's very well-done for what it is.

7.5

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

Juniper, cranberry, biscuit malt, and grapefruit peel aroma. Golden yellow with large off-white head. Lightly sweet cranberry, biscuit malt, and moderately bitter juniper and grapefruit peel flavor. Good body. Strong juniper flavor - a bit too much if I take more than a sip.

2.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 1 | Texture - 2 | Overall - 1.5

12 oz can. Pours a fairly hazy deep golden with a white head. Aroma is fairly muted, but somewhat fruity, berrylike, and a definite spruce/pine edge. Definitely tastes like a tree. I just really wish there were more to it. I don't really get any fruity body or any citrusy hoppiness. Just spruce needles. Bitter from the juniper berries, but with nothing to balance it. I really like the Short's Spruce India Pilsner, but this is very much not that. I don't much like cranberries, so I thought the cranberry was going to be a problem, but it's actually everything else that's the problem. I haven't put a beer down a drain in a long time, but there it goes.

7

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Clear with a very slight hazy golden and copper coloured body, complete with a small single centimetre tall off-white head with hardly any movement at all noticeable. Aroma of sweet resinous and syrupy/sappy notes with some bright hop bitterness from pine and grass with an almost cherry or sour fruit scent right at the end. Medium-bodied; Assertive syrupy and very resinous piney flavours with a lot of bitterness, pungency and dry malt flavours with some sweetness at the end from the resin, but this is all about the very dry, sprucey and piney notes that hit with bitterness throughout this one. Aftertaste is relatively straight-forward sappy, piney and bitter with some noticeable sweetness as well. Overall, an IPA-ish beer with a lot of spruce and pine, perhaps more than I’ve had in most beers of this style that works out relatively well, but not perfectly. Nice to try, but not very recommended for people who don’t like bitter beer, IPAs or piney beers (of course). I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased from Grape Vine in Sterling Heights, Michigan on 09-December-2016 for US$2,99 sampled at home on the Eastern Shore of Virginia about a month later on 14-January-2017.

4.9

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 5.5

Bottle thanks to Graeme. Pours a clear gold with small frothy white head. The aroma is rosemary and fruit. Medium mouth with strong rosemary and tylenol, nope.

7.6

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Poured from bottle light orangey color with thin white head. Aroma is quite interesting as it hits you with sweet berry and spruce. Taste is hint of tart fruit and then the hop hits you through the balanced finish.

7.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Wife and I enjoyed six pack (not in one day). Shorts’ spruce offerings may not be for everyone, but I have loved everyone I tried. Bright, clean, gold color with little head. Fresh spruce aroma. Really different beer. Not as busy tasting as the description, but a brief appearance of tartness, then hops, spruce and juniper. Spruce finish.

8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

12 ounce bottle into tulip glass, bottled on 12/16/2013. Pours slightly hazy golden amber color with a 1 finger dense white head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Spotty soapy lacing clings around the glass. Aromas of big tangerine, pineapple, lemon zest, tart cranberry, juniper, floral, spruce, light honey, bread, herbal, and floral earthiness. Damn nice aromas with good balance and complexity of hop, fruit, spruce, and malt motes; with great strength. Taste of tangerine, pineapple, lemon zest, cranberry, spruce, juniper, pine, floral, grass, light honey, bread, and floral earthiness. Good amount of pine bitterness and light cranberry tartness on the finish; with lingering notes of pineapple, lemon zest, cranberry, spruce, juniper, pine, floral, grass, light honey, bread, and floral earthiness on the finish for a while. Damn nice balance and complexity of hop, fruit, spruce, and malt flavors; with a great hop/spice balance and zero cloying flavors after the finish. Medium carbonation and body; with a lightly slick, crisp, and sticky mouthfeel that is good. Alcohol is very well hidden with only a slight warming present after the finish. Overall this is a damn nice spiced IPA style. All around good balance and complexity of hop, fruit, spruce, and malt flavors; and very smooth and crisp to sip on. A very enjoyable offering.

6

Odd sweetness hits me wrong but interesting