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So to start off, yes, we've quasi-previously reviewed this at the Fiery Foods Fest back in February. With the palate shot then after a still-memorable inferno pizza, I don't believe we did justice to the 6% ABV, 53 IBU fantastic brew. It's still shocking to me that we haven't done as many local breweries as we should, as we have a fantastic brewing community that gets along all while producing fantastic brew. We've met a good portion of the professional brewing community here in town and I cannot speak ill of any of them. They're all good people and there's no animosity between any of them. To quote Frank Turner, "Colleges and friends condensed with a smile, yeah, but this is my culture, man, this is my home." The community is another reason I want to quit my factory life and get into the brewing scene. Even helping out different breweries with festivals or canning/bottling days, they treat their customers like they are part of their family.
So tonight, we thoroughly review a highly touted local beer; soon, we get into a highly touted brew that we obtained in a beer trade (Matt, we had every intention of getting to it tonight, I swear!). Seventh Son's website has this:
"A pale golden ale that is both super crisp and super hop forward with a refreshing mouthfeel and a summer friendly 6% abv. Mosaic & simcoe hops lend tart blueberry and fragrant pine to a pleasingly bitter dandelion finish. We wanted the hops to be the star in this seasonal offering taking its name from both the hop plant, Humulus Lupulus, and its light color and cloud-like feel, nimbus."
The color is, well, a perfect golden color. Good carbonation, leaving a nice white, foamy head that sticks around. The aroma on this.... yeah. Their website nailed most of it with blueberry and pine. I'm also picking up notes of almost mango-like notes. Amazing aroma. The flavor on this is a wild trip of what you got in the nose, plus a whole lot more. It starts off with the blueberry, mango combo, and kicks in with some orange, all with a juicy blast that quenches your thirst. Midway through, there's some bitterness that starts to appear, with some faint earthy notes giving way to the pine notes that take hold at this moment, faint tea notes come through for a second. The hop stickiness is definitely making itself noticed by the time you get to the finish, which I will argue with their website's description. You get the dandelion in the finish, but there's so much more. The tropical fruits make a reappearance along with some faint grapefruit and orange notes. This finishes sticky from the hops. I don't really get much malt flavor from this throughout the entire thing. It's a great showcasing of the hops without overdoing it. Colin and Max rock.
4.8/5 caps
-Nathan-
Mmmmm. Mosaic hops, currently at the top of my hops list (no worries, Simcoe is on that list, too). They lend such a lovely, complex note to each beer to which they are lovingly added. At the North Market Microbrew Festival, I recall immediately identifying them in the flavor profile of a couple of IPAs (Truth from Rhinegeist and Musk of the Minotaur from Hoof Hearted come to mind, as well as a fantastic offering from Wolf's Ridge). Funny, as often as I have had this extra(ordinary!) pale ale, I have never picked up on Mosaic in here. It's most definitely time to remedy that.
Also, let me just mention how much I love Seventh Son's Seventh Son American Strong Ale. It's hoppy, yet lovely and just enough boozy. It was their flagship, and how I fell in love with Seventh Son.
As Nathan so well described, this pours a perfect golden color, with just a slight haze (and this has been sitting awhile). In the aroma, I pick up more grapefruit, but yet it's also blueberry and piney, with just a hint of mango and cracker. I am completely in love with this aroma. I want to swan dive into it. Alas, as my human form will not fit into a pint glass, let's reverse engineer this and force it into my body, instead of the other way around. Taking a sip, I would swear there were fresh grapefruit peel in here (proper subjunctive, bitches). Eh, fuck it, Nathan's description of it perfectly describes the roller coaster in your mouth, so go re-read his portion (if you have even made it thus far). Plus grapefruit zest. And just a hint of crackery malts hanging around in the back end. This is also perfectly carbonated, and leaves such a happy feeling in my mouth that I can't help but smile with each sip.
Do you remember the image of Snoopy doing his happy dance? That is what this beer evokes from me. Every happy moment I have had in my life flashes before my eyes as I drink this.
4.999999/5 caps
-Jennie
Food Pairing: Barbecued chicken, Wargoland style.
Cheese Pairing: Irish cheddar -- and this part is important -- on a Dill Triscuit
Music Pairing: "I Am Disappeared" Frank Turner (yeah. I know, I talk a lot about Frank Turner, but seriously, go listen to his music!)
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