Thanks Greg for personally dropping this off at my workplace a few weeks ago! I've been meaning to do a road trip to Regina for several months now but due to you know what, I'd rather not travel... So, it's been now over four years since I last made a visit in the city, a very quick one at best as I was heading to a friend's wedding in Saskatoon.
Today's review is Malty National Brewing Corp's The Hand of Fate NEIPA, which is a Dry-hopped IPA with Strata, Galaxy and HBC 431 hops. Canned Sept 2021. 6% ABV
Appearance: Well, just look at this - this is an interesting one. It's a deep, muddy, murky orange body.. something I haven't seen in a New England-style IPA in nearly forever. The head is pretty thick with an off-white hue to it, and as expected the head diminishes to leave behind a moderate lacing in the end.
Aroma: Hmm, it's a bit of a medicinal IPA to start off things, I don't know what to describe it as, but medicinal. There's something that reminds me a tad of black licorice, but once it warms up just a tad.. it reminds me of my visits to the brewery with my buddy Ben back in 2016 - Wow, they've been open that long already?! So, once it warms up.. it's incredibly juicy with a heavy caramel malt profile, leafy hop presence, moderately syrupy.
Taste: When I took the first sip, I already let the beer warm up a bit but I definitely get a bit of a medicinal taste in my first sip - just like in the aroma, but then the hops and malt get more complex to give it off a heavy New England vibe to it - lots of heavy juice notes here with orange, pineapple, lemon, as well as a kick of pine for bitterness and a bit of a creaminess to it at the end. It almost has a Tootsie pop vibe to it, which is weird but the flavours really pop out all over. A bit of a bitter and yeasty aftertaste at the end.
Overall Thoughts: One of the more interesting NEIPAs I've had in the past few months, but Malty National isn't your standard NEIPA brewery, they were rocking the style out well when the style was only starting to become popular outside of New England. Sweet, floral, caramelly, tropical, pretty heavy but nice!
No comments:
Post a Comment