Nelson

On tap at Duckworth’s Park location. Clear golden with small/medium white head. Aroma is herbal hops, medium body, light/medium carbonation, and pretty good lacing. Taste is herbal hops and slightly bitter finish.

Draught at Deep Ellum, 11/17/15.
Bright tangerine-apricot liquid shows good clarity and a medium-sized white head with moderate retention.
I love this hop and the nose does justice to it. Lots of stonefruit, very big and juicy, with bright orange marmalade accents. There’s a good deal of malt behind it, adding lots of honey and white bread-like character. Fresh and highly aromatic, but there’s somehow a touch of resin here or sharpness of some sort. As well, there’s a definite plastic note that’s quite strong but not terribly bothersome.
The flavor confirms this as, though the flavors of the hop are delicious, the beer is just heavily, heavily bitter. Way more than is necessary to balance the pale malt sweetness that creates a medium to medium-full body. With every sip I keep trying to focus and enjoy the flavors, but my palate gets further an further harried by all of this obnoxious bitterness. Nearly exact same situation as with the other beers I’ve tried from them lately: duet and hoppy birthday. I have fond memories of Pure Hoppiness, and I don’t think my tastes have changed to be less tolerant of heavily bitter IPAs (have always hated em), so I don’t really get what’s going on with Alpine’s mediocrity these days (I usually like Green Flash, though I guess they have a high propensity for making overly bitter beers too). Oh well.

Draught @ Taproom 307. Hazy bright yellow with small foamy white head, piney hops aroma, low carbonation, slightly sweet, very well balanced hoppy taste with a hint of pineapple, full body, long finish. Very very good indeed!