I'm heading to Montreal in two weeks for Mondial de la bière, one of the largest beer festivals in the world. While at Mondial, I'm doing a day trip to Ontario with Hop Citizen and stopping at Beau's and hopefully a few awesome Ottawa brewpubs and restaurant(s) along the trip. The other day I received a bottle of Full Time IPA: Jack over at Eclectic Beverages has been raving about this beer for MONTHS, just counting down the days until it was available in Manitoba. Full Time IPA is supposed to be a new permanent offering for Beau's for the Manitoba market to compliment Lug Tread, being available in bottles and kegs throughout Manitoba, so you will be seeing this in Winnipeg and Brandon restaurants sometime in the near future. For some reason I keep getting this beer mixed up with Founders' All Day IPA because.. well, sometimes Full Time can be all day long. This is also the first time I get to play around with my Canon 24MM STM pancake lens.
Appearance: Full Time pours a moderately cloudy golden straw, it seems kind of clear but behind the glass all I see is the shadow of whatever is behind the beer glass. There is a good amount of micro-carbonation, giving off a good stream of bubbles in the middle of the glass, but not quite like a lager or pilsner. As for the head, It starts off with a rich, thick frothy white head but quickly diminishes into a half finger's worth of foam on top and some lacing on the side.
Aroma: The aroma is a combination of bitter and tropical, a bit reminiscent of Driftwood's Fat Tug IPA. The first thing that comes to mind is a solid amount of pine and floral bitterness that just makes me want to drink this beer faster. There is also a great deal of tropical hop notes of pineapple, lemon and grapefruit that give it a great summertime patio zestiness to it. It's not as sweet and tropical as the New England IPAs we've been seeing pop up lately but it has exactly what I want in my IPAs - bitter hops complimented by some tropical notes.
Taste: The bitterness of the hops is dominant for the initial tasting, giving off notes of pine and a bit of graininess from the cereals. The next thing I taste is the tropical flavours that consist of pineapple, grapefruit, lemon and green apple. The aftertaste is slightly bitter with a lingering apple peel taste to it.
Overall Thoughts: I'm absolutely excited to see this beer launched in Manitoba, especially as a Full Time product. Beau's will be sampling it at Flatlanders Beer Festival at Bell MTS Place next week so I know I'll be trying to get seconds and thirds of this beer if the lines aren't too long (they will be). It's a solid West Coast IPA with a good deal of bitterness and a citrus backing to it. They recommend pairing it with Chipotle & mango salsa with spiced tortilla chips, BBQ beef burgers with caramelized onions and sharp cheddar, ginger-cookie-&-cream-cheese ice cream sandwich, which all sounds delicious (but I'd pair it without the onions). 6.7% ABV
https://beaus.ca/beer/full-time-p/
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