8-4-24 Craft + Carry NYC

473ml can. Quasi black colour with minimally late awakening, average to huge, firm, frothy to creamy, very slowly osteoporosing, moderately lacing, tan head. Mildly roasty, chocolately, dark malty and weak, minimally zesty, citrusy hoppy aroma, hints of cocoa, dark chocolate, a touch of coffee, hints of orange peel, lemon, mandarine, a touch of orange flavoured chocolate. Taste is surprisingly homogeneous, citrusy fruity hoppy and chocolately, mildly roasty, dark malty, some raosty bitterness, some zesty bitterness, notes of lemon, orange and dark chocolate, or rather lemon flavoured resp. orange flavoured dark chocolate, some cocoa, a ouch of caramel, some residual sweetness; tobacco overtones in the finish. Immensely creamy texture, smooth and soft, silky palate paralleled with weak astringent (tartness) and pungent (bitterness) aspects, simultaneously a greasy-oily effect on the lips as well; very fine, dense, mildly prickly carbonation. Relatively weak, or better, thin hop flavours in the aroma, very homogenous, amalgamated taste, extraordinary mouthfeel - pretty good.

Frothy white good mostly lasting head. Cloudy yellow colour. Moderate malty and heavy hoppy aroma. Citrus notes. Moderate bitter flavor. Average moderate bitter finish. Oily palate.

Double hazy IPA from New York state dry-hopped with Triumph, Strata and Nelson and advertising “a highly aromatic blend of skunk terpenes” – but given that there is no ingredients list on the can, I cannot find out if these terpenes (aromatic compounds of many plants including hops and cannabis but also pine trees and citrus fruit) in extracted, purified form, a technique increasingly used by U.S. craft brewers to enhance certain aromas; I will assume they have, considering the word ‘terpenes’ is explicitly used. Moussey, eggshell-white, rather large-bubbled, opening and slowly disintegrating head on a hazy yellow blonde robe, opaque yolk-yellow in fact, looking like fruit juice like so many New England IPA derivatives do these days. Intensely fruity bouquet of ripe Durondeau pear, orange and tangerine, mango, lychee, mangosteen, honeydew, mandarin, yellow kiwi, meringue, vague background hints of marijuana-like dankness, white soap and pink peppercorns. Sweet onset, softly carbonated; a juicy whole of ripe sweet orange, ripe pear, melon, lychee and mango, even some canned pineapple – like drinking a tropical fruit juice blend from a carton; some light minerally carbonation sits at the edges, while a creamy, smooth cake-doughy core fills the mouth, refreshened by ongoing citrus (mandarin) and tropical fruit notes, culminating in a hugely tropical finish, a wave of sweet tropical fruit mixed with ripe pear and melon – mangosteen and cherimoya also springing to mind. The hops produce a slight peppery bitterness all the way at the back which I find very welcoming in this overall sweetness, keeping things highly drinkable; alcohol, though palpable as a slight warmth gliding down the throat along with all that tropical and citrusy fruit, remains altogether well hidden. That soapy note returns briefly too. Very sweet, hugely aromatic NEDIPA, in which I can easily accept the sheer intensity of the fruitiness to be derived from these added terpenes from a bottle. Feels a touch contrived, in a certain way, but it goes down like nothing and has lost nothing of its brightness in spite of the can being many months old now – this deserves an extra point for me. Enjoyed outside on a hot summer evening, which is probably the best circumstance imaginable for this kind of beer.

Caramel, malty, hoppy, crisp

Magus, mõru, linnaseline, nats happeline. Ok.

Tap at Beertemple, 22nd May 24. Pours a thick black. Aroma is chocolate, barrel, vanilla, cocoa. Taste is chocolate, sweet, complex, roasted malts, nicely balanced. Lovely

Tap at BeerTemple, Amsterdam, 21st May 24. Pours black, aroma is mellow, roasted malts. Taste is mellow, bitter, roasted malts, cocoa, citrus. Decent