In the spirit of Category 12 Brewing being adventurous, they have made a Dry-Hopped Sour. This is a style that appeases both the hop heads and the sour lovers of the beer world, two very hard to please crowds. They aim to give you a massive hop aroma and flavour to go along with a sour backbone. B.C. Beer Reviews is here to check this one out.
B.C. Beer Reviews: Category 12 Brewing – Dry-Hopped Sour
Colour
This beer pours a very cloudy and pale straw colour from the bottle. In the glass, it is much of the same. It has a cloudiness to it that is likely imparted from the hop polyphenols left behind by the dry hopping process. The light straw colour is a common one for most sours.
Nose/Aroma
You are immediately presented with both a tart and a dank aromatic. They certainly hit the nail on the head of what you expect from the straightforward name of this beer.
There is a dank and somewhat vegetative aroma that you can often get with dry hopping. It is light enough to not overpower the other aromas at play here and will certainly make any hop head very happy.
Tasting Notes
The first taste you take will present you with a very approachable and pleasant level of sour. This is best categorized as tasting like citric acid and more specifically coming off as diluted lemon juice. It is not sour to the point that pure lemon juice is and will certainly not make your face pucker.
Unless the lemon is from the hops, which it very well could be, then there is not much hop character here. This is not necessarily a negative thing, but you would hope for more character in this aspect.
Other Notes
On top of a teal green logo is a colourful star-like design with scientific symbols inlaid on it. Above that is the name of Category 12 Brewing and in front is the name of the beer. This is very pleasant packaging overall.
This beer is highly carbonated and therefore pours a massive head. Much like almost all sour beers, the retention of that head is virtually nonexistent.
There is a fairly significant amount of lacing on the glass from this beer. The glass is coated after finishing it.
Rundown
This beer presents you with a dank and vegetative hop aromatic that is complimented by a tart note. In the taste it is diluted lemon juice and citric acid. Overall, this beer hits the nail on the head and is a very easy drinking beer overall.
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Main photo by Nic Hendrickson, Lastword Inc., all rights reserved