Review: Oxus Mosaic Strawberry Milkshake Kveik Double IPA

I just realized the other day that I've never done any reviews of any Oxus Brewing's beers here at BeerCrank.ca, though I have reviewed their beers a few times in my old First Draught column in the Brandon Sun. I've been a fan of Oxus' beers since they started distributing to Brandon in early 2018, also their owner/brewmaster Sean was insanely accomodating to myself and beer buddy friends from Westman when he was busy constructing his taproom, taking a good amount of time out of his schedule to show us around and sample products.. such a fun time! Mosaic Strawberry Milkshake Kveik Double IPA is one of the brewery's most recent releases that I get to sample thanks to Chris over at Quality Beer Store (yet again!)

From the label: Velvety soft tropical double IPA brewed with strawberries, generously dry hopped with Mosaic hops and fermented with Norwegian farmhouse yeast. Contains lactose. 7.5% ABV

Appearance: Very hazy Double IPA with a dark orange appearance to it, and when against the light at certain angles it has a tad bit of a reddish hue to it. Bits of sediment floating throughout the beer, moderate amount of carbonation in the body. The head has a light-to-moderate creamy head on top with a creamy lacing as the beer goes down, sip by sip.

Aroma: Strawberry is certainly the very first thing I get from this beer, it's a sweet strawberry aroma that's a tad vegetal and slightly tart. Decent amount of creaminess in this beer, bit of sharp yeastiness that gives it a slight sourdough-like aroma to it. Certainly has a bit of a strawberry milkshake kind of vibe going here.

Taste: Sweet and creamy. Again, strawberries are the first thing I get from this beer - it's not as sweet as a lot of the fruit beers out there, rather it's more of a sweet and slightly vegetal beer with a good deal of creaminess to it, kind of like a strawberries-n-cream kind of vibe to it. Fairly smooth yet the yeast givess of a bit of a sharp sourdough flavour fairly early on but diminishes a tad as the beer goes down a bit. Leafy and floral hops, bit of grainess.. lots of things going on in this beer.

Overall Thoughts: The appearance isn't as milkshakey as many milkshake IPAs out there but the taste does have notes of a fresh strawberry milkshake.. if it were a beer. The yeast is a bit sharp, there's a bit of a leafy hop presence, slight vegetal notes, creamy. I would say this is a desserty beer because of the strawberry milkshake vibe to it but really, I think it's more of a happy hour beer for me, really nice beer for the patio after work.. but my only job right now is writing reviews, I guess I'll savouring this for a bit once this article is done.... now!