Green Flash Brewing Company - Palate Wrecker

It's a peaceful and tranquil night on the shores of Coronado Beach, CA and the sunset is painting the sky full of fiery reds, oranges and yellows. All of sudden, a green flash radiates from the center of the sunset covering sections of the horizon reminding you that our planet is full of awe inspiring natural phenomena. In my mind, a night like this lead Mike and Lisa Hinkley to name their brewery, Green Flash Brewing Company. If not, its still a cool story and this San Diego based brewery with brewmaster Chuck Silva has been producing great beer since 2004. Recently, Green Flash added the Palate Wrecker (Hamilton's 2nd Anniversary Ale) to its national distribution allowing it to find its way to the shelves of Craft Beer Cellar. 

As I poured Palate Wrecker from the bottle into my pint glass, its viscosity was clearly noticeable. It was quite thick and syrupy, which reminded my of a light extra virgin olive oil. A small bubbly head rested atop a dark-copper body. The clarity of this beer was somewhat surprising because I was expecting more haze from the increased malt bill of this Imperial IPA, however my fingers were clearly visible through the pint glass. After multiple sips, small, delicate lacings begin to appear, but only on the opposite side from where I was taking my sips.
After I poured this beer from the bottle, I let the beer sit and rest for a couple of minutes. During this time, I quickly realized that the aroma of this beer was very potent and powerful. The aroma was able to diffuse the four feet from the table to the couch. WOW! Upon closer inspection, piney resin dominated the nose with minor qualities of orange, pineapple and grapefruit.

The taste profile is very similar to the nose. The pine character of this beer completely coats your palate leaving very little room for detection of malts, but the taste is so pleasing, you forget about the other ingredients. The hop character lingers for an extraordinary amount of time creating a continuous hop cycle linking each sip. It was truly great! I found it hard to detect the orange and pineapple that were present in the nose, but the grapefruit was evident and tasteful.
The mouthfeel was very sticky and oily leading to a very full bodied beer. The excessive hopping created a somewhat dry finish. The beer was so smooth that the 9.5% ABV was virtual non-existent, which could lead to a night of debauchery, but I think sitting in a beach chair with a great book would suit me just fine, and who knows, maybe I would be fortunate enough to see my first green flash.




Cheers,
PandaMack

ps. MUST-TRY!