Brewer's Reserve Double Citra IPA - Blackfoot River Brewing Company

GeezLynn

Minnesota

4.2/5  rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Brewer's Reserve Double Citra bottle 379 of 380. “aged in dry fly distilling wheat whiskey barrels”. Reviewed 08/05/12.

A: Pours out a beautiful light apricot orange with a sparse white head and not much retention.
S: Heavy caramel aroma along with vanilla and hops that oscillate between fruity and piney. The combination brings honey/peach pie to mind.
T: Starts off on the sweet side with building hop flavors followed by a slight alcoholic bite. Vanilla and maybe a bit of whiskey round out the finish. There’s a nice seesaw between sweet and bitter with hops showing citrus and pine. Would be interesting to compare changes in hop flavor (Citra) from release 6 mos. ago until now, as this seems a bit aggressive than my other experiences with Citra.
M: Medium bodied with soft carbonation. Maybe a bit under-carbonated for some, but I tend to prefer less carbonation. Slick and fairly dry feel (for a beer this gravity) suggest they used a healthy dose of hops.

Some definite similarities between this and Blackfoot’s barrel-aged barleywine, though this was much dryer and I’m guessing only partially barrel aged (whiskey presence seemed very subtle). A nice sipper and as always, well-crafted. Looking forward to the next one. Big thanks to Ryan for this one.

Edit: After checking further, wheat whiskies are softer/more mild, which would explain the lack of outright whiskey character in this beer.

Serving type: bottle

08-21-2012 15:45:06 | More by GeezLynn