Ale Asylum Hopalicious Review and More...

Ale Asylum Hopalicious is an American Pale Ale brewed with all Cascade hops.  There are 11 additions of cascades to this tasty beverage. This ale is unfiltered and according to the bottle brewed in sanity (love that tag line by the way!).  It pours a slightly hazy orange copper with a nice white cap. The aroma is citrus with some grapefruit and orange and maybe a little lemon? It smells like it is going to be a small hop bomb.  The taste is not entirely like the smell. There is a faint bitterness, but the character of the cascades really shines through. This is a great beer for people that really want to know what cascades can do for a beer.  The mouthfeel is good and where it should be and the hops linger on the tongue and the back of the pallet. This is a very sessionable beer and one that I would keep in the fridge as a go to in the summer. My only complaint would be that this beer needs to be drank young, I had a few on tap and it was WAY better, but it still tastes good out of the bottle. This beer leaves some nice lacing as shown here.  On an A-F scale I would rate this a B+.

Now on the the Gran Cru that I brewed a few months ago.  This beer really surprised me as I am not usually a fan of these types of belgianesque beers.  I am not really a huge fan of beers with coriander in them, but this beer might persuade me to rethink that.  This beer pours a clear yellow/straw to slight copper. The head retention is somewhat problematic with this beer, but it does leave some nice lacing. The smell is yeasty with the orange peel and coriander shining through, I can also smell the honey. The thing that I love about this beer is that none of these flavors dominate and they have all come together nicely.  The S-33 fermented in the upper range to get some esters out of the yeast and I am really happy that I fermented this hot around 75. I don't really pick up a ton of fusels which is great and the yeast definitely gave it some of that nice Belgian flair that I do like. Overall I am really happy with this beer and it is one that I would consider putting in standard rotation.  Here is a pic of the beer after a few sips. Cheers to good beer!