Overstable
Fiddlehead Brewing Company in Shelburne, Vermont, United States 🇺🇸
IPA - Imperial New England / Hazy Rotating|
Score
6.89
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Clarkvv (16760) reviewed Overstable from Fiddlehead Brewing Company 8 years ago
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
Draught at Ginger Man Boston, 6/21/17.
Thoroughly hazy, though not cloudy/soupy, brass-golden body is topped by a well-retained, white head.
Juicy nectarine and pineapple perk up immediately in the nose and instant similarities to the regular Fiddlehead IPA are found. The same biscuity, crackery, unobtrusive malt base is here, contributing very little sweetness. Thankfully it’s unnecessary here, as the hop character creates mostly tropical fruit and deep, wintergreen-tinged pine/spruce notes that add very little acidity. Low resin and no alcohol or flaw. Lots of spicy pineapple emerges with warming/breathing.
Malty, well-attenuated texture with tight, engaging carbonation and plentiful papaya, mango, nectarine and orange comprising most of the hop flavor. Bitterness is moderate-to-low and there’s a fair amount of enjoyable juiciness/tropical character up front.
Much to my chagrin, however, there’s an almost plasticy note hanging over everything here that is immediately apparent and slowly and steadily builds up to the point of dominating. Had not experienced this in prior FH beers, but then, I haven’t had a FH beer in quite a while. I went on to try two other FH beers that night (Tejas Marron and Second Fiddle, and both were all but ruined by the same note). Either this is some odd, plasticy, popcorny note that indicates their yeast needs to be changed out, or they got a very less-than-ideal batch of hops which have been used in all of their beers lately. Whatever the case, it was very unfortunate and completely ruined my enjoyment of all three of the beers. Will give it another few months and revisit some new batches of their beers to check back in on this.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
On tap at Vermont Tap House.
This was poured into a tulip.
The appearance was a ruddy yellow color. Finger’s worth of white foamy head quickly dies off. Sly sticky lace.
The aroma blends superbly between the sweet and the bitter of the citrus pulpy juiciness and rind. Subtle grasping sweet oats.
The flavor blends wonderfully again between the sweet and the bitter. Adding the sweet of the oats to slide on into the aftertaste and finish.
On the palate, this one sat about a light to medium on the body with a sly sipping to sessionable trait quaffing my tongue nicely.
Overall, nicely done DIPA. Of course, I’d have again.