3.1 AROMA 6/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 6/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 13/20 beerbaaron (1780) - Arizona, USA - MAY 30, 2015
Draft at Thunder Canyon downtown. Clear amber with sticky white head. Some rye, otherwise kind of generic. Moderately bitter. Just not much character.
3.4 AROMA 6/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 15/20 cbkschubert (2900) - BFE, Arizona, USA - JUL 1, 2011
On tap @ TC - Pours a hazy amber color with a faint off white head. Nice lacing. Aroma is mostly hops. Flavor is pine hops and light rye. The hop bitterness really lingers in the finish. Medium body. A decent beer.
3.7 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 15/20 fata2683 (2176) - Tucson, Arizona, USA - JUL 1, 2011
on tap at the brewpub pours amber with a thin light tan head. Aroma is full on assertive pine and floral hops with a touch of the rye coming through with some doughy malts. Flavor is nice, pretty well balanced with the rye adding a dryness to the malt profile and a big wallop of hops in the finish that really dry things out. Nice beer.
3.5 AROMA 6/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 14/20 FlacoAlto (4013) - Tucson, Arizona, USA - JUN 16, 2011
A steady pour from a growler produces a one-finger thick, pale tan colored head. The beer is a dark amber hue, but shows a bright, clear, red-copper hue when held up to the light. The aroma is dominated by an focused hoppiness that has up front notes of citrus and fruit followed by backing herbal character. Towards the finish the malt really starts to kick with lots of caramelized malt character (from crystal malt more than likely), as well as lightly toasted brown bread character and even some rye spiciness towards the finish. The hop fruit character leans more towards grapefruit and tangerine than anything. My nose seems to get deadened to the bright hop character after a bit and I am noticing more and more the crystal malt taking over the nose with notes of sweet tea, caramelized bread crust and more malt spiciness from both the crystal malt and perhaps even the rye. The pine and herbal (perhaps a touch of menthol even).
Somewhat light feeling, but there is definitely some viscousness to the heft of this beer; the beer has a texture to it that lingers in the finish, but is ultimately cut through by an biting hop bitterness. The bitterness is actually fairly pervasive and really lingers on the palate. The bitterness during a sip intermingles with a nice herbal character that leans towards pine and a touch of menthol. I am not noticing a ton of sweetness to this at first, but much of that has to do with the fact that I just ate dinner; as my palate adjust though, more of a caramelized sweetness starts to become noticeable in the flavor (a touch like sweet tea). This definitely has a hop bite to it, it lingers on the palate with an almost turpene like tongue-numbing character that is a mix of bitterness, menthol, pine tar and perhaps some tobacco. A citrus zest character also contributes to this tongue-numbing character; flavors of ripe tangelo zest, ruby red grapefruit and caramelized orange zest. The rye character is perhaps a touch subtle, though this is typical in hoppy rye beers, but it perhaps accentuates the spiciness and peppery notes of the hops a bit more than otherwise.
Coming back to the aroma after some time really has me noticing an almost woody, sort of tobacco note from the hops that really ends up quite peppery in character. Ultimately the rye leaves more of a sensation on the palate than a big contribution to the flavor. This beer could really, really, really use a whole lot more hop character. This is definitely very under hopped compared to many of the aggressive hopped beers this seems to be modeled after; I would venture a guess that this needs a whole lot more dry hopping (I wonder if this sees any at all even), but that would likely push this into the hoppy goodness that I would really like to see).
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