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Yes, it’s Wednesday, but more important: it’s MDBD!

Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is frequent reviewer of beer and a beer lover deluxe.

Pours hazy banana yellow. Softy pastel and with a soft light in the body of the beer. Fat white head of tight creamy foam that lasted and left rings of lace.

Nose is bright with citrus. Lemon, lime and something sweet and juicy underneath. yeast is earthy and not too strong with any funk. A soft clove emerges as this warms as does a bit of light dry biscuit. There is an earthy pine on the nose but it is subtle.

Taste is delicate and a bit earthy but deeply sweet. It has a a nice juicy fruit quality that is comprised of citrus. Soft clove and an airy dry biscuit malt. It has a bit of crushed aspirin like bitterness to the middle and a hop bitter that lingers. Mouthfeel is juicy and just a hair more than light because of the malt sweetness. Pine remains soft and earthy and the clove is even softer and more subtle.

This is a graceful and very juicy IPA that does indeed deliver west coast drinkability with a Belgian style dryness. Congratulations Ithaca. If all the beers in this box are as good as this one, it could challenge Ommegang.

Serving type: bottle

4

Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”

__________________________________________Beer HERE

Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is frequent reviewer of beer and a beer lover deluxe.

Chocolate in beer simply makes sense — especially in rich, heavy stouts and porters that already taste something like a liquid brownie. And cherries in a sour beer is a tart and summery idea — a perfect marriage. Even yerba mate, that bitter tea-like herb of Argentina, is a sensible fit in an IPA. But just what was the brewer was thinking who first put oysters into a vat of boiling brew?

Oyster stouts could easily play the part of just another wild concoction stewed up in the modern heights of craft brewing madness. However, they’ve actually got honest, time-tested roots going back more than a century to Victorian England, when many pub-goers ate oysters on the half shell while sipping their favorite beers. Often, these were stouts, whose bittersweet toasty flavors happened to complement the briny, juicy flesh of the mollusks quite well. For a time, in fact, “oyster stout” was simply a term that referred to a pub session at which oysters were slurped between sips of beer.

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Of course what they skip is the fact it was a style pioneered by small craft and Belgian brewers, and InBev disguises it as “craft.” So deception works. Surprised? Oh, and the regular brews of Miller and AB are actually down in sales in genera, while craft is up. The unfortunate lesson: pretend with fake packaging to be craft more -PGA

A Belgian-style wheat beer by the name of Shock Top is the fastest growing craft beer in the US, according to Moody’s. Production of Shock Top surged by 64% between 2011 and 2012, according to data the ratings firm recently collected.

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