Beer: Southern Tier Unearthly IIPA
Brewery Location: Lakewood, NY
Beer Style: Imperial IPA
ABV: 11%
I have been stockpiling beer, and I need to stop it. I had a friend over from work to help me try and put a dent in some beer I've been meaning to try to get worked through.
This was my very first offering from Southern Tier. This beer has a good reputation among beer geeks, and I traded for a bottle of this beer. It does come in a very nice silk-screened bottle with the most amount of information I've ever seen a company put on their bottle. It tells you the IBU's, type of hops that went into it, and the malt it contains.
Pours a very clear orange color with a small creamy white head on it. It left patchy lacing on the walls of my pint glass. I get a good whiff of this as I pour it. Dominant scents include sticky pine, ripe citrus fruit, and subtle earthiness. I also get some lesser scents including bready malt and an underlying honey sweetness smell. The taste is of very sweet honey-like malt and bitter hops. There is a bit of a caramel undertone to this beer as well. The hops seem a bit subdued and do not have the quality on the palate as they do in the nose. The mouthfeel is medium and the alcohol is very well hidden. The drinkability did not hold well for me on this beer. It was very sweet and I suspect underattenuation on this beer. That would explain a nice body and mouthfeel and an overall sweet taste.
I was very excited for this beer, but it just didn't live up to my expectations. I suspect this may have been a bad bottle with the underlying sweetness that was present here. I will certainly give it another try, but I won't be trading for it.
Cheers!
Matt
4 comments:
You are on!
Reds vs. Cubs. Better record wins.
Mt. Carmel and Barrelhouse brewed in Cincinnati are probably the best. Christian Moerlein really isn't that great. So maybe it will be one of those first two if you win.
I liked the Southern Tier regular IPA a lot better; it was still pretty sweet, but not nearly as overpoweringly so. I still don't know why a company with "southern" in its name operates out of New York, though.
elia -- I grew up in Western New York (Rochester, to be specific) and "Southern Tier" is the local name of the area of New York where this is brewed. It's generally the area south of the Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse metros. Wikipedia's got a great map:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Tier
Matt -- I was in Chicago this weekend and grabbed a bottle of Southern Tier Tripel. I would have grabbed the Unearthly IIPA if they had it! We had the regular IPA at my nephews 1st birthday cookout and I agree that it's very tasty elia!
While not is the south of the US, it is certainly south of Canada.
Mildew on that for a bit.
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