Fat Head's / Breakside Pulp Free IPA

Beer Name: Pulp Free IPA
Brewery: Collaboration between Breakside Brewery (Portland, OR) and Fat Head's Brewery (Portland, OR)
ABV: 6.4%
How sold: 32 oz crowlers; on draft
Where bought: Growler Guys (Portland, OR)
Price: $8.00 for 32 oz. crowler (can)

Date Purchased: April 15, 2016
Date Opened/Drank: May 27, 2016
IBUs: 45
When brewed? Special release in April 2016.

Pint at Growler Guys on April 15, 2016

Crowler machine

Where distributed: Special one-time release at Growler Guys. Unknown if this collaboration will return for an encore run.

What's on the Website (at Untappd): "Our take on the new school IPA featuring juicy and tropical varietals like Mosaic, Citra and Eldorado. This IPA features all the great things we enjoy about the new juicy IPA's but looks and tastes like beer. Big juicy aromas; a round and pillowy mouthfeel; Pulp Free finishes with soft bitterness and tropical fruit flavors." Read more here!

REVIEW:

Appearance (5%): Poured hazy golden-orange into a pint glass. Off-white head. 4.25/5

Smell (25%): Extremely juicy and refreshing. Tropical intensity for days, mainly orange and passion fruit. Some slight malt. 4.75/5

Taste (40%): Mega tropical juicy from start to finish. Bursts of orange and passion fruit engulf the mouth. A bit of malty and very slight dank notes. Only (fairly significant) drawback for me is the aftertaste; it gets watery and the taste abruptly ends. Frankly feels like a Session IPA to me, even when listed at 6.4%. 4/5

Mouthfeel (10%): Medium-light bodied with slight carbonation. Very juicy on the tongue, and I love that. 4.5/5

Overall (20%): An excellent IPA. Bringing together two respected and award-winning breweries in Portland was a kickass idea. As people may have been noticing on my blog posts, I have been gravitating towards the New England-style IPA, and this was a very good take on that style. Frankly, had there been more punch and flavor in terms of aftertaste, I'd say this would be a world-class beer. I'm not as high up on Session IPAs or anything that can resemble one, as I prefer to stick in that traditional 6.5% - 9% and 60-100 IBU range for IPAs and Double IPAs (most likely to have my personal balance of hops, tropical, and malt/dank). But in all fairness, this was a damn good beer that could (sorta) pass for the juicier little brother of Block 15 Sticky Hands. 4.25/5

Final Weighted Rating: 4.3/5