A jelly bean company called “Jelly Belly” recently introduced a ‘draft beer’ flavor that can be mixed with other jelly bean flavors to create a cocktail or shandy explosion in your mouth.
I’m gonna need to find this one!
Pearl Street Brewery Linalool IPA
Here’s an IPA that really blew me away! Linalool from Pearl Street Brewery in nearby LaCrosse, WI is an amazing IPA with something different to provide.
It’s hoppy like an IPA should be but there’s something very different with this one.
It pours a nice copper color with a 2-finger off-white head. The nose is grassy hop, citrus, lemon peel or lemon grass and just a hint of pear.
The flavor is wonderful! A floral hop that is a crisp and clean mouthfeel WITHOUT THAT DRYNESS OR RESIN that’s left on your tongue, like most IPA’s. That was the big, “Oh, wow!” moment for me. I was also perplexed by what strain of hop this was. I couldn’t place it because of the lack of resin taste, but with a bold hoppiness that was bitter with a slightly sweet note. I was a little embarrassed that I couldn’t figure it out. I’ve been getting better and better with finding the characteristics of different hops, but this was confusing me. It definitely wasn’t Citra, Mosaic or Cascade, and it wasn’t pungent like Galaxy. These are the easiest for me to detect as they tend to be used the most, I find.
I had to cheat and check out Pearl Street’s web page.
Interestingly enough, it was a WILD hop that is indigenous to Wisconsin! It was found in 2007 and appropriately named, Northern Discovery! After reading that this beer can mature or age and become more pungent and change the nose, over time, I need to grab some more of this and sit on a few bottles and re-taste them after 8 months, a year or 2!
Check out that lacing!
