We follow up tonight's reviews with another brew we can't get in Ohio. Schlafly is a brewery out of St. Louis, Missouri, that we've enjoyed in our western trips to Peoria, Illinois. A friend of ours obtained this selection of theirs. Huh, we've only previously reviewed 3 of their brews. We need to up the ante on this.
My bottle didn't really have a hard 'psst' to it. The head on this bottle was almost non-existent. Shit. Oh well, no beer left behind. This was pulled straight from the fridge and into a pint glass. There's an epic chill haze to this. The color of the beer is a little darker than the golden orange color on the label. Speaking of label, this was bottled 9/18/14, this needs to be drank before hops start to die off. We've been slacking so much in our reviews with everything else going on this year (this review makes the 51st blog post of this year, compared to the 215 of 2013, hell even 22 in 2012 when we started the blog around Thanksgiving). Oops. We didn't get through some of the brews we wanted to- we had to drink some instead of saving for reviews just to not let it go to waste. To see all of the beers we've quasi-reviewed, you should follow us on Untappd. But back to the current beer review.
Weird, in the time that this has had to warm up, more head is coming out. Alright. The aroma is citrus and sweetness on this 7.2% ABV brew. The flavor on this is.... oh shit.... I don't know if I can give Jennie her bottle of this... It wouldn't be fair to her. Why would anyone make a beer like this? This smooth drinking citrus bomb starts off starts with a mango and other tropical fruit blast, some pine starts to make a precious before more juicy flavors of orange quenches the bitterness. This is one of the juiciest IPAs I've had. This apparently is a SMaSH brew (Single Malt and Single Hop) being made with the Galaxy strain hop. 65 IBUs on this brew, but it's not really bitter at all. Big, juicy. While you're drinking it, it's more like a tropical punch- medium bodied, perfect carbonation. The aftermath of each sip leaves a nice orange/mango/pineapple flavor lingering while your mouth is slightly sticky; half hop oils, half sweetness. This is a fantastic showcase of Galaxy. Hell. This is a fantastic beer. Hopsus be praised. I'm off to confiscate Jennie's bottle so she doesn't have to go through this torture. Side note, I now want to experiment with Galaxy in our homebrews.
4.9/5 caps
-Nathan-
Whew! That was close... Nathan actually tried to block the fridge so that I couldn't get mine. And then attempted to tell me how horribly disappointing this was. Not buying it for a second, mister. I did steal a sniff of his before cracking mine open, and wow... that aroma!
Doing my own research after a conversation with a friend this morning about this precise beer, I see that Schlafly's website is a bit confusing and contradictory. It lists this as a SMaSH beer (see Nathan's portion for a definition of this), but it also says that it contains Australian Topaz hops, which is a milder hop strain from the land down under. All I can do at this point is shrug my shoulders and delve back into that luscious aroma.
This has copious amounts of chill haze, having been liberated from the refrigerator about 15 minutes ago. It is a pale orange color, about the color of our newest rescue kitty, a fluffy blond ball of love (the other three kitties would disagree, although after nearly a month, they seem to have reached some kind of temporary detente). There is a minimal bright white head that sits atop my beer. As Nathan noted, there was not as much auditory acknowledgement upon opening this. I want to swan dive into this aroma. Notes of melon, passionfruit, and a ton of pineapple waft past my nose. Oh hell, this is goooooooood. Flavors of pineapple and mango seem to dominate, but passionfruit, guava, and melon come through, as well as a nice crackery note from the 2-row Pale malt. This finishes wonderfully dry and almost with a hint of black pepper. This, my friends, is delicious. Galaxy has quickly become a darling among hopheads from both commercial and home brews, and this is a perfect example of why. This leaves a little sticky sweet feeling in the mouth, but that wonderful dry finish makes up for that and then some. No wonder this lovely hop has become such a fan favorite.
I always look forward to Schlafly beers, as they so rarely disappoint. They do Special Release IPAs to play with the various hops and showcase styles from various hemispheres. This is a beautiful example of the most popular and utilized hop from the Southern Hemisphere. I hope to see this in Ohio soon!
4.9/5 caps
Food Pairing: bacon wrapped jalapenos (that have been stuffed with an herbed cream cheese or Boursin's Garlic and Herb variety)
Cheese Pairing: Pecorino Romano
Music Pairing: Vivaldi, "Four Seasons" (yes, all four. We have opposite seasons than Australia, of course)
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