I absolutely love this brewery’s logo. It’s hard to imagine something more badass than a bear and lion about to throw down in a bare-knuckles boxing match. Oh yeah, they make some pretty good beer as well.
Beer Name: Luponic Distortion: Revolution 004
Brewer: Firestone Walker Brewing Company (Paso Robles, CA)
Style: IPA
ABV: 5.9%
Description: The fourth installment in a series of IPAs brewed with a revolving set of hops. For this particular beer they used a combination of four South African varieties. You can find out a lot more information about this project on the brewery’s website. My can was dated 11/15/2016 and I had right around it’s two month birthday (this post got backlogged a bit).
Appearance: Translucent straw yellow/amber body topped off by a fizzy white head.
Smell: Crisp, piney bitterness with a little bit of sweetness mixed in.
Taste: Very clean and crisp. Light tropical sweetness upfront, with a crackery malt and piney hop finish. The flavors were very balanced and smooth as opposed to aggressive bursts of fruit and bitterness.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Hype: This brewery does tend to garner some attention, though I don’t believe there was much hype around this particular release. It was, however, yet another one of the beers recommended to my wife around the holidays so I was once again curious to see how well the shop steered her.
Overall: I liked this a lot. Light and refreshing, I enjoyed the departure from the hazy juice-driven IPAs I’ve been drinking a lot of lately. A very pleasant reminder of just how good other approaches to this style can be. Will be keeping an eye for future releases in this series.