Review: Torque Five O'clock Shadow City Brett Pale Ale

Here's a beer I've been saving for a while to open up - I picked up a bunch of Torque Brewing's beers a couple days after their big half-decade anniversary back in August.. I wish I could've gone as I've been familiar with them since way before they were ever a brewery but more of a concept. Today's sampling is their Five O'Clock Shadow City Brett Pale Ale. I still remember many years ago cringing at every beer that was brewed with Brett, but after leaving Quebec/Vermont and sampling many Brett-style beers, I had a longing for the wild and meddling yeast, add Citra hops to it and that'll be quite the treat. 5.7% ABV

Appearance: Don't mind the branded glass, it's all I have right now. Pours a moderately clear and bright straw body, lots of carbonation in the body and a hefty snow white head to start off with, but diminishes to just a faint head on top. Quite bubbly.

Aroma: Oh, this is a good one! The Citra pops out giving off a sweet, floral, tropical presence, followed by a funkiness from the Brett.. a mild tartness, lemon, straw and bubble gum presence. 

Taste: Decently bubbly in my mouth giving it a bit of a Belgiany/Champagne kind of vibe to it. The beer is sweet, a hint of honey, as well as tropical with passionfruit, melon lemon, and orange zest, followed by a bit of bubble gum and a slight tartness with a hint of woodiness to it.

Overall Thoughts: The Brett is very accommodating in this beer, flirting with the malt and the hops instead of giving off a very aggressive barnyard vibe to it.. which I should know well as I'm sitting only 100 feet from some cows at this very moment. This may be a one-off created just for Torque's birthday last year but this is something I'd like to see again, even if tweaked. Lastly, it's weird opening a beer with a bottle opener now days, pretty much everything from light lagers to heavy Baltic Porters are in cans now.

PS Torque, I miss you guys and gals! Since I wrote this a bunch of weeks ago, their awesome employee Camila sent me an awesome care package featuring their latest releases. I honestly haven't had time to open it because of a big trip to Europe I've been planning for the past little while.