The ABCS
Jack's Abby Craft Lagers in Framingham, Massachusetts, United States 🇺🇸
Lager - India Style Rotating Out of Production|
Score
7.11
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Clarkvv (16523) reviewed The ABCS from Jack's Abby Craft Lagers 10 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 5
April 2014 bottle drunk late Summer 2014
The thing finally dropped "clear" after about 2 months in the fridge. And by clear I mean lightly hazy. Though that’s better than cloudy as all hell. Just remember kids, you too can clarify your IPAs if you just let them sit at the bottom of a cold fridge for a long time....I think my Trillium Congress St and Mosaic Fort Point are just about at the one month mark and neither are showing any signs of dropping. Playin hard ball eh hop particulates? Well I bet you didn’t count on me aging you in my fridge for 3 more years! Ha, that’ll teach these pesky IPAs. No just kidding, I’ll drink them soon, cloudy or no.
So back to this beer, but still on the subject of cloudy IPAs, I really do believe it strongly impacts the flavor. Have I had some incredible IPAs/DIPAs that were cloudy? Absolutely. At some point, a well-brewed, knowledgeably-hopped IPA is going to taste/smell amazing regardless of the hop sediment. Would it taste even better if it was bright? Yep. The problem is, on a beer such as ABCS, which, while wonderfully hopped with all sorts of tropical fruit, citrus and pine, is also HEAVILY acidic. The sediment works against the overall brightness of the hop flavors, which in turn displays the acid/resin even more than it normally would be. The very slight nuttiness/blandness from the particulates (and in some cases, diritiness, though not here) also knock down the head formation/retention (for whatever that’s worth).
That all being said, this beer is just too alcoholic (even at 7.5%) and brutally acidic for me to enjoy. Yes, it’s got lots of crystal malt imparting that lovely iced tea like flavor that you know and [don’t] love, with a malty texture, but even the malt is probably overattenuated to where it needs to be to begin to balance this beast.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Rcvd in trade. Reviewed from notes.
The appearance has a clear golden body with a three finger white foamy head that rises and falls and leaves some nice speckled/yet somewhat spider web lacing. There is some light slowly moving carbonation is seen rising.
The smell is spicy through the citrus, slight hint of pine, comes out slightly grassy as well.
The taste is spicy and bitter through previously mentioned flavors, slight grapefruit comes out slightly sweet (malty, perhaps?), sticky aftertaste.
The palate is about a medium, perhaps sessionable, yet smooth, dry finish.
Overall, this is a nice spicy Double Pilsner that is good for its style and good for me.
CLW (16859) reviewed The ABCS from Jack's Abby Craft Lagers 12 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Draft @ Lord Hobo. Snifter shows a clear gold with thick retention down the glass. Nose is a delightful mixture of tropical fruit, grapefruit and biscuit malt. Flavor is ripe honeydew melon, grapefruit pith, over ripe pineapple and bitter grapefruit. Bitterness linger for a long duration, and hangs well after the final sip. Lots of fruit and solid bitterness. As this beer warms pine hops make an appearance. Damn, this is a really tasty brew, I would drink this any day of the week.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Pours deep gold into a Sam glass. White head with good retention recedes leaving spider lacing. Tangerine and resin aromas. Soft with sweet tropical fruit and resin upfront turning hot in the earthy grapefruit pith finish.