Parallel 49 Rye the Long Face Rye IPA at 8.5% ABV | 86 IBU (C$7.49 at Oak & Vine, 650 ml, packaged on 18-Jan-2017, acquired 3-Jul-2017, reviewed 7-Jul-2017)
Appearance: clear pale amber with three fingers of fine ivory head, excellent retention and chunky lacing. (5/5) Aroma: toffee/caramel, citrus, rye sourdough, tropical fruit, earth. (6/10) Taste: moderate-high sweet, moderate-high bitter, mild peppery spice. (7/10) Palate: medium slightly oily body, moderate carbonation, sweetish lingering bitter lightly peppery finish. (3/5)
One of the most painful labels I’ve ever experienced: it starts off with “Hay neigh-bour!” and goes downhill from there, with “to put pasture lips” being particularly cringe-worthy. OK, puns aside, how’s the beer, you might well ask? Well… it’s certainly not as good as Charlevoix’ La Vache Folle RyePA, for example, but it’s not bad. The rye presence could stand to be a little more pronounced, because right now it comes through predominantly as a doughy presence in the mid, and only a very mild spice in the finish. Overall, this comes across as a fairly old-style DIPA, with heavy malt leading the way over an emphatic but fairly blunt bitter. Fairly enjoyable, but not all that interesting. If my interpretation of the date code is correct, it’s a bit outside the golden window for IPAs, but that doesn’t generally apply to DIPAs because the much higher ABV should have provided at least some measure of protection. And if not, and I’m experiencing the effects of age, well, perhaps you should clearly date your bottles instead of using an arcane code system lightly engraved on the neck so you can only see it after pouring the beer, huh Skippy? (14/20)
7/10 #ryansbooze ryansbooze.com
