Founders Harvest

Ah, it's one of my favorite times of year... it's Halloween Eve (my favorite holiday), and it's harvest ale season. Harvest ales are traditionally wet-hopped, which means that the beer was brewed within a few days of the hops being harvested. In case you have forgotten the distinction between fresh-hopped and wet-hopped beers, we delved into them awhile back. Harvest ales may or may not be technically IPA's, but the freshness of the hops during the brew process is critical and delightful in the end product.

This poured a golden straw color with a moderate white head. The aroma on this makes me want to swim in it: there are notes of pine, grapefruit, and just a hint of caramel. Taking a sip, it's sheer bliss. It starts off just as it smells, with pine and citrus being prevalent, floating atop a heavenly caramel bliss. There is also a fair amount of mango and possibly pineapple in the mix. This is an amazingly clean-drinking beer. It's, well, blissful. This is the point where Nathan is going to praise Hopsus. Consider yourselves warned. It's a little sticky sweet in the mouth, but it's by no means cloying.

Founders has knocked another one out of the park. This is a fantastic brew, and I'm so glad we could get one this year. We thoroughly enjoyed it last year, and this year is no different.

5/5 caps

-Jennie

All Hallows' Eve Eve, nice weather outside (especially considering we had a huge cold snap last week that plummeted down below freezing), who could ask for anything better than an awesome beer to go along with this?  This sure beats the sweetness of American Adjunct Lagers, and I haven't tasted this yet. I smelled the bottle as soon as Jen-tender pried the cap off, sweet Hopsus... If it were legal, I would marry the aroma.

This pours a nice light straw color, almost like a session IPA with small amount of white head. It makes me flash back to the appearance of the great lawnmower IPAs we've enjoyed (Easy IPA and All Day IPA to name a couple). The aroma of this 70 IBU, 7.6% ABV beauty is simply another way to pay homage to the glorious Hopsus. Hopsus be praised! Grapefruit, orange, tropical fruits and hints of toffee and caramel grab hold of your nostrils, trying to shove their way in more. After removing this from under my nose, I fight the urge to go back to the smell. This might take over an hour just to do battled with the aroma to see who wins. Spoiler alert, I'm pretty sure I will. The way I've described this is a sheer understatement of the sheer awesomeness of this. No, I must continue, okay, one more smell of this before I get to the taste. Fuck! If someone could make a candle or incense that smells like this, I would be a regular customer of yours.

Okay, now finally..... damn it... one more smell.... Okay, now, onto the taste. This is smooth drinking, rather lighter bodied with some faint stickiness, not what I'd expect from this. I expected a little heavier bite, but in no way am I complaining. The smell is deceptive of the mouthfeel. The flavors I'm picking up are grapefruit and tropical fruits. There's some slight citrus zest pungency toward the backend with faint bitterness, but nothing overwhelming in the least bit. This would be great to introduce non-Hop Heads into the world of Hopsus. There are at times, as this warms up some more where floral notes pop up. There's some oiliness to the mouthfeel, assuming from the copious amount of hops used in this, but surprisingly not a lot of bitterness, yes I reiterated something I said earlier, but, to be fair, there are some characteristics that are coming out more now that it's warming up to room temp. This does not drink like a 7.6% beer, it's much easier, like, well, Easy IPA (see previous link).

Hopsus be with you.

5/5 caps

-Nathan-