Draught at Haymaker, 6/11/17.
Little-to-no haziness in this pale, straw-blonde beer. White head atop recedes to cover.
Thus far I’ve been pretty unimpressed with mandarina bavaria, finding it too dry, "scratchy" and yielding very little aroma/flavor. I also am pretty over mosaic, finding it too garlic and pine-heavy. So with that in mind, I was very pleasantly surprised to find both a soft and aromatic nose full of light mango, soft, ripe nectarine and just a hint of leafy, green, pine. Soft apple-like esters from the yeast and mild honey and biscuit from the malt easily break through the hops and while you’re not going to mistake this from something out of Koln, the "Americanization" (or neo-Germa-Americanization) of it is quite welcome in my mind, as the fuzzy, soft, fruity hops work perfectly with the character of a kolsch. No flaw, alcohol or resin.
Dry, light-bodied, crisp and with a touch of graininess that works perfectly to contribute a bit more texture. Moderate, engaging carbonation and tons of soft tangerine, mango, nectarine and apricot notes, none of it rich and juicy, but still quite flavorful and complementing the malt and yeast without dominating. Nice to see this from OH. So many of the new-hopped beers that claim to be something other than a pale ale or IPA are just pale ales and IPAs.