Massachusetts – The Tap Takeover

Name: Haze
Brewing Company: Tree House Brewing Company
Location: Charlton, MA
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 8.2% | IBU: 90

“A quintessential juice bomb, a definitive and foundational Imperial Hazy New England IPA. Simply a must have beer.”

From Tree House Brewings’s page for Haze:

Our core double IPA! Haze is crafted with pale malt and an extreme kettle and dry hop dose of our favorite Northwest American hops. We smell a ton of peach on the nose, with complimentary notes of orange and passionfruit. The flavor is similar with a blast of citrus fruit & peach quickly followed by a bounty of tropical fruit. A lingering and pleasant saturated hop oil finish awaits. . . . A real juice bomb of a beer, and a true Tree House original.

Tree House Brewing is one of the highest profile, most well respected independent small breweries in the country. They are at the forefront of breweries pioneering and making popular the style of New England IPA. I haven’t visited yet, but fortunately, a few friends at work have and were kind enough to pass along one of their “extras” to me because you can only get the beer at the brewery.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way, the visuals of the beer. If you gave me the beer I poured into the glass without the can, I would guess that it was orange juice. The nose give hints of that, there’s a nice mix of citrus sweetness and hoppy bitterness wafting off the hazy beer. While the underlying scent is beer, you’d be forgiven for mistaking this for orange or orange citrus punch by look and aroma.

Diving in and tasting it, I’m hit with a soft, hoppy, delicious beer. There’s a creaminess and a very soft (I hate this word) mouthfeel to the beer, one of the most pleasant “feeling” beers I’ve ever had. Makes it hard to believe this beer is ratcheted up at 90 IBUs. The finish is tropically sweet with a pleasant hop bite and hints of the hop oil I’ve come to expect and enjoy from the more well-made Imperial IPAs (I’m looking at you Dogfish Head’s 90 Minute and Burton Baton).

The flavor is super potent to the point that this beer is as close to a chewable IPA as you’ll find. That citrus/hoppy juice bomb lingers long enough for you to take your time enjoying the beer. Considering the ABV is 8.2% taking your time with this beer is a wise choice. On the other hand, the beer is so delicious you want more. And more. And more. All of *that* having been said, unless you live in Massachusetts near the brewery, getting beer from Tree House Brewing is far from an easy task so you really want to savor the beer for as long as possible.

One thought that came to me as I was enjoying the beer is that this would be a good beer for breakfast or brunch. I’d normally think a Breakfast Stout (brewed with Oatmeal and Coffee) would be the ideal “breakfast beer.” Then I had this juice bomb, with that delicious hop profile, this wouldn’t be a bad choice for a fancy brunch.

This is one of the beers (along with their flagship Julius) that helped to put Tree House Brewing on the map, helped to establish the style of New England IPA on an “Imperial” or “Double IPA” level, and transform the idea that an Imperial IPA can evoke juiciness just as much as it can evoke pleasant bitterness. This beer may even be considered a modern American Craft Beer Classic.

Quite simply, this is one of the best IPAs I’ve ever had.

Recommended, link to Untappd 4.75-bottle cap rating.

Name: Post Shift Pilsner
Brewing Company: Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers
Location: Framingham, MA
Style: Pilsner – Other
ABV: 4.7%

“A finely crafted Pilsner is a beer of beauty, Post Shift Pilsner from Jack’s Abby is such a beer.”

From Jack’s Abby’s landing page for Post Shift Pilsner:

There will be no working during drinking hours! Brewed with Bavarian malt and hops, this everyday Pilsner is bright, crisp and refreshing. We think it’s the perfect way to end the work day. Clock out, post-up and enjoy!

It is always exciting when a well-respected regional brewery begins distributing in your area. Last year for me, it was Bell’s Brewery. This year for me that brewery is Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers. As their name would imply, Jack’s Abby specializes in lagers (i.e. German inspired beers), with the majority of their portfolio falling in that category. Pilsner is one of the most popular (and sometimes reviled) styles of beer in the world, but in the hands of expert craftspeople, a Pilsner is an elegant beer. When I learned Jack’s Abby was going to start distributing into New Jersey, I knew this was the first beer I wanted to try from the fine purveyors of German-style beers out of Framingham, MA.

So, Post Shift Pilsner. The name tells me this is the first thing you want to grab after a day’s work. Can’t argue with the ethos of a beer name like that. Out of the 16oz can, the beer pours a beautiful, mostly clear yellow. In other words, it looks exactly how you’d expect a Pilsner to look like. But, how does it taste compared to other Pilsners? That’s a big difference indeed.

A Pilsner is a precise beer, it uses few ingredients except those of the German Purity Law Reinheitsgebot: Water, Barley, and Hops. With a Pilsner, you can’t hide any mistakes with a fruit adjunct or sweeten up the beer with an addition of Lactose. An elegant beer whose prime, essential ingredients shine. Jack’s Abby captures that spirit and those ingredients wonderfully.

The first sip turns into a gulp, the beer is so tasty. Just about everything I want in a Pilsner is present in this beer – delicious and refreshing, slightly bitter, a little sweet. Let’s unpack that a little, shall we?

There’s a wonderful balance at the start, I get a pleasant, slight bittering from hops with a sweetness, maybe a little fruity sweetness. The bitterness and sweetness are almost a single flavor thread throughout the beer, they work so well together. What makes this one great is similar to what makes the beer I reviewed last week great, the authentic German malts (as in from Germany) used in the beer. They impart that lovely sweetness that so perfectly balances the Noble hops. According to Jack Abby’s Web site:

The Jack’s Abby brewing team travels to Germany every year to procure German hops and malt from small family run operations in Bavaria. The brewers use old-world brewing techniques of decoction and spunding to recreate historical lagers.

The finish has a slightly toasted bready/crackery taste that I associate with Pilsners (and some Helles Lagers, too). I like it, I want more of it. Hell, I picked up a 6 pack on a Thursday and found it hard to not enjoy one of these delicious beers every day of that weekend. When it comes to a wonderfully flavorful beer perfect for any day, a beer that will please both discerning craft beer drinkers with that flavor, while not making non-craft drinkers wary, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better beer than Jack Abby’s Post Shift Pilsner.

Amazingly, this is the first beer I’ve reviewed from a Massachusetts brewery.

Recommended, link to Untappd 4.25-bottle cap rating.

Badge Earned:

Crisp as Day (Level 12)