Bottle consumed on 12/30/05. Frothy white head seems well-retained to begin. Strong hop aroma is spicy, fruity and bitter (lots of grapefruit). Light malt is sugary and slightly doughy, but there is no huge yeast stink or any syrupy caramel malt. Clear and fresh are the hops. Body is copper-amber and bottle conditioned. Flavor is citrusy-piney hops, but significantly more flavor than bitterness. Caramel and pale malt sugars in the background provide balance, body. Light biscuity, almost grainy vienna-like malts in there as well. No alcohol apparency. The hops seem fresh enough, but the malt is a little lacking. Just seems sugary and rather dull. But the amarillo fruitiness almost seems to make up for it. Not to mention the very low acidity, which allows the palate some relief. Light notes of orange zest and candied oranges, as the caramel and cascades combine, edging the pininess somewhat. Gets somewhat watery, and probably my biggest complaint, and kind of the crux of what I feel is wrong here, it finishes very quickly. Sure, some hop bitterness lingers on, but it just turns to watery otherwise. Still, you can’t deny it’s well-brewed. No alcohol apparency is pretty impressive, right down to the last mouthfull of (by now) warm liquid. Lightly creamy texture at times, fairly tight carbonation is also quite low. Light lacing left behind.

Milwaukee YEHa!05, brought by MIBRomeo. Cloudy yellow-orange body, thin off-white head. Aroma of pine, bread, toast, and a hint of stinky sweat (???). Piney, biscuity body with nice bite and bitterness, cutting the malts to perfection. Rather heavy on the hops, per style. Solid.