Block 15 Brewing Sticky Hands

Beer Name: Sticky Hands
Brewery: Block 15 Brewing Co. (Corvallis, OR)
ABV: 8.1%
How sold: 4-packs of tallboy pints (16 oz cans)
Where bought: Belmont Station (Portland, OR)
Price: $12.50 for 4-pack

"Canned on" Date: December 1, 2015
In Stores: December 2, 2015! The very next day!
Date Purchased: December 5, 2015
Date Opened/Drank: December 6, 2015
IBUs: 110(!)

What's on the Can: "This Hop Experience Ale features ample additions of sticky, resinous, lupulin-packed hop buds. An aromatic blast of tropical fruits, citrus, and dank herbs transitions into luscious hop flavor with a balanced bitter finish. Tongue happy hoppy face slap. Sticky Hands is canned and delivered fresh. Enjoy bright hoppy notes when young or store cold and let the characters meld. Either way is a delicious hop experience and you deserve the choice. Store cold, drink cool, keep it real."

What's on the Website: "This Hop Experience Ale features ample additions of sticky, resinous, lupulin packed hop buds grown in the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy a hop decrescendo that begins with an aromatic blast of tropical fruits, citrus and dank herbs; transitions into luscious hop flavor; and ends with a balanced bitter finish, gently propped up by pale malted barley and fermented with our privately banked Brewers yeast." Read more here!

When brewed? Year-round beer. Block 15 Brewing brews and generally cans these fresh every four weeks. In December 2015, it was canned canned fresh every two weeks. As noted above, these are found in very select stores the next day in Oregon.

Where distributed: As of December 2015, Block 15 Brewing only distributes within Oregon, and just to FOUR Oregon cities (Portland, Corvallis, Eugene, and Ashland) at this time. Click to see where Block 15 distributes its beer!

REVIEW:

Appearance (5%): Poured hazy golden into a pint glass. Unfiltered beer. A few tiny bubbles and not much of a sudsy surface remained on my pour. White head. 4.5/5

Smell (25%): Lovely balanced aroma of tropical fruits, malt, and pine/floral. Slightly dank. 4.5/5

Taste (40%): Hoppy and fruity upfront, balancing off with pine, floral, and dank qualities. Dankness and bitterness linger a bit on the aftertaste. An IPA flavor bomb of balanced goodness. I don't get any alcohol here. Awesome. 4.75/5

Mouthfeel (10%): Medium-full body and malty, the beer practically sticking everywhere inside the mouth, namely on the back of the mouth and tongue. It finishes amazingly well, and masks the 8.1% as much as it can. Slight bitterness on the tongue from being a very hop-forward beer. More of a floral aftertaste. 4.5/5

Overall (20%): An outstanding Double IPA. I don't believe I've had a beer so fresh before, popping the can open just five days after it was sealed up. The crazy thing is I could probably have gotten it much fresher (Block 15 distributes the day after canning), but work and other projects got in the way. That being said, this is a wonderful IPA that takes on a Northwest identity with the balance that a Midwest IPA (i.e. Surly or Bell's) seems to bring. People who love IPAs with high IBUs will love this, but I believe that it drinks easier than its stated 110 IBUs. I'm very excited that I can get this when I so choose. I might sound crazy, but $12.50 for a 4-pack still seems like a decent deal with this quality. 4.5/5

Final Weighted Rating: 4.6/5