If there is one thing that can be undeniably stated about Parallel 49 Brewing, it is that they are not one to shy away from a new beer style. They have made a plethora of interesting creations, and they jumped on the Brut IPA hype train quite early. This beer style is supposed to mimic the dryness and crisp carbonation of Brut Champagne. Along with that is is a sort of kickback to the New England IPA to provide the drinker with the same hop flavour and aroma without the lack of clarity and heavy body. Let’s pop the cork and see what’s inside.
B.C. Beer Reviews: Parallel 49 Brewing – Brut IPA
Colour
This beer pours a fantastically clear yellow-straw colour. In the glass it has a slight haze, but not enough to say it is not a clear beer. The colour and the clarity is within the specs of the style.
Nose/Aroma
There is a strong citrus aroma up front. The best way to describe it would be to categorize it as orange zest and lemon. It is extremely pleasant and not at all overpowering.
There is also a strong grainy sweetness to the aroma of this beer. Given the fact that many of these beers use Pilsner or Pale 2-row as the base malt, this is not overly surprising and well within the norms of the style.
Overall, this is a fairly balanced aroma between the hop notes and the grainy sweetness.
Tasting Notes
The orange and lemon notes in the aroma come through again nicely here, albeit much more subtle than in the aroma. They linger throughout and hang around well after each sip is gone.
The grainy sweetness also follows through here. It is immediately noticeable alongside the hops, and only somewhat in the background of the hop notes at play.
There is zero perceivable bitterness to this beer and an extremely light body to this beer. It also has a very crisp and highly carbonated finish.
Other Notes
This beer is in a nice corked and caged bottle with a simple and elegant black and silver label that is reminiscent of a champagne label. Parallel 49 Brewing does a good job with their branding here.
As stated earlier, the carbonation is high and well within the style. This leads to an initially massive head and a very good head retention.
Rundown
This style calls for light colour, good clarity, no bitterness, tons of hop flavour and aroma and high carbonation. This beer hits all those points nicely. While it won’t blow you away with any one single note, it is a nice representation of a still rather young style.
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Main photo by Nic Hendrickson, Lastword Inc., all rights reserved