4.8

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

2006 bottle. Had one with Muzzlehatch about 2 months ago, and then just had another on 4/24/06
Sadly, this beer has already gone far down hill in just 2 months. The green, juicy, flavorful hoppiness in aroma and flavor are now significanly more sluggish and have slipped in to being more bitter and less flavorful/aromatic. Light ringwood mineral-like notes are hard and coupled with lightly dry roast and a watery milk-chocolate flavor that used to be more firm. Appearance, while never stellar, shows even less retention on the light tan head, receding very quickly to ring. The hops go right through the watery malt flavors and an overcarbonation, of large, sharp bubbles plagues the palate as well. The pasteurization on this beer is so apparent and ruinous, not to mention the extreme filtration. Even if they bottle conditioned the beer and didnt pasteurize, they would still be in better shape, infection or no infection. An infection in bottle conditioning or in primary or whatever, would take a while to develop. I think that the time it would take for the infection to show itself is longer than the time it takes for the pasteurization/filtration to render it undrinkable. As it is, after only 2 months, it’s already past its prime. If Magic Hat is so concerned with making beers to be drunk as fresh as possible, how could they possibly justify not bottle conditioning?? It makes no sense.