Style: New England IPA
Brewery: Connecticut Valley Brewing
Origin: USA
Size: 47.3cl
Alcohol: 7%
Price: 45kr
Systembolaget: 10353
Connecticut Valley has been brewing since 2010, but since 2018 their brewery and taproom has been based in their hometown of South Windsor. They also own a café and roastery, producing their own coffee. Their logo features the F4U Corsair, which is the official designated aeroplane of the Connecticut. This was hopped with Galaxy and Mandarina Bavaria and is part of the Galaxy NEIPA series from the brewery. I always try the beers before the tastings in case there are defective flavours or aromas I should know about. I am glad I tasted this one as this was indeed faulty.
This was a deep golden colour with a massive bubble bath head that held forever! It was almost a bit worrying just how bubbly this beer was when decanted, and formed a crackled head, which was the first sign that something wasn’t quite right with the beer. The carbonation in the beer was also rather high, as you might expect. Grapefruit, pineapple and white peach were all found in the robust aroma, but there was also a big vegetable note that became more prominent as the beer warmed up. The taste was just a bit wrong and stale, which was surprising because I’ve always liked the beers from Connecticut Valley before. There was definitely a vegetable edge to the taste mixed with moss, which I don’t think was supposed to be there. The aftertaste lingered for a long, long time unfortunately, and I can’t say it was very pleasant.
I would go so far as to say this was defective and I would not recommend this batch of this beer to anyone. I kept this beer in the tasting, so the guests could try a defective beer. To counter this, I bought cans of To Øl # DIPA (nr.1530) so they could compare and contrast the two samples and the difference really was night and days, with the # DIPA being fresh, fruity and delicious. Connecticut Valley has always produced great beers, but something went very wrong in the production of this beer and I would say stay well clear of this!