Collective Arts Brewing IPA #8 American Double / Imperial IPA at 8% ABV (C$5.79 at Okotoks Co-Op, 473 ml, packaged on 8-Jan-2019, acquired 15-Mar-2019, reviewed 15-Mar-2019)
Appearance: cloudy pale gold with one fat finger of rocky white head, good retention and moderate clingy lacing. (4/5) Aroma: tropical fruit, citrus, pale malt, resiny pine. (8/10) Taste: moderate sweet, moderate-high bitter. (8/10) Palate: medium body, moderate carbonation, off-dry moderate bitter finish. (4/5)
“Possibly our most beautiful”, huh? Nothing like setting yourself up for failure! I’ll save you some suspense and tell you, right off the hop, it isn’t. It’s close, I’ll give it that, but it clearly isn’t (isn’t clearly?) their best ever. I hasten to add, this is not what you might call “a failure”. I pretty much gauge all of their releases in this series against what I consider to be the high water mark, #4. This is good – nay, excellent – but lacks that hugely juicy citrus punch of that gold standard. To the extent I have any real complaint here, it’s that this first (I think) DIPA offering in the series doesn’t knock it out of the park. Call it an inside-the-park home run. (And why do I keep using baseball analogies when I hate baseball?) On the other hand, a new (to me) ANZ hop? Win! (16/20)
8/10 #ryansbooze ryansbooze.com
