I am not much of a puzzler but I did one a few weeks ago and I was quite proud of myself. It said 2 to 3 years on the box and it only took me a day to finish!* This puzzle of a pint took me a little longer to finish than most brews. Possibly because it is 8 million pieces with some missing, but more likely because of the taste. Let me explain.
After a mild straight forward classic 4.2% Guinness retro review the other day, this blueberry, blackberry vanilla bean double IPA at 8.1% is certainly a contrast in styles and taste. Viva la difference, or not. It had a ruby slipper rosé pour with a light white creamy custard head. A field berry creamsicle aroma. Seriously, the sweet vanilla and lactose has it smelling like a right out of the freezer creamsicle.
First swig is that sweet creamsicle you smell with a mix of berries combining almost like a sour with a double kick boozy finish, some may say complex and I would concur. 8,000,000 pieces complex, with a few missing. It does have a nice creamy mouthfeel, I’ll give it that. The sweet creamy vanilla & lactose custard is ok but tends to get a bit cloying after a short while. The initial sour like taste, which I think is just the contrast between the vanilla sweet and the blueberry blackberry very berry beery body, was just a first impression.
As this brew progresses the sweet is too sweet and the berry purees bumble along and don’t quite go with the strong double finish. As complex as a 3-D chess game, with some of the pieces missing. I don’t think there are any pieces missing to this puzzle, I think there are too many. Maybe, just maybe, this would have worked as a single with some restraint on the sweet and some hops instead of the double boozy finish. Maybe.
I’m a Flying Monkeys fan, the brewery that is, not those creepy Wizard of Oz west witch minions, but this brew is trying to be wonderfully weird and it ends up being too weird to be wonderful. Those crazy flying monkeys have crossed the line with this one.
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