Nickel Bag - O'Brien's 17th Anniversary
Shane, I couldn't honestly thank you enough. Missing Younger this year weighs heavily on my heart, and having this beer just eased the pain. I split this with Devin and John tonight. Mildly hazy, this beer is orange-amber with a dense off-white head with excellent retention. Sheets of lacing are present on my pint glass. The nose has an explosive hop character . Pine grapefruit, dank and resiny, this is super intense. Unlike many hop bombs, this avoids being herbal - I do get a little weedy skunkiness, but hot damn, there's none of that herbal, minty, tobacco-like dankness present. Pure, fruity and pine-like hops all the way. If the nose was great, the palate just destroys it. Perfect for a DIPA in every which way, this is dank, resiny, fruity and piney and fucking perfect. Some peach, dried mango and ripe orange, this is unreal. Bitterness is moderate, further proving that I've fully experienced an lupulin threshold shift. Perfect, this is resiny and bitter on the finish. No malt character, this is all about the hops. Fucking perfect. I would really, really love to drink more of this. Easily the best beer of 2011. So juicy, so fruity, so hoppy without being sweet at all, this is a hophead's wet dream.