Review: Black Wheat Li'l Feller Micro IPA

I still remember when Session style beers (less than 5% ABV) were on their way to become the new norm in the craft beer scene, but then COVID happened and they seemed to mostly disappear, or I just didn't notice them. Today's sampling is Li'l Feller Micro IPA from Brandon, Manitoba's Black Wheat Brewing.

From the can: Li'l Feller Micro IPA is hoppy, smooth, local, and Li'l - tiny but mighty, like a cowboy's favourite sidekick. 40 IBU

Appearance: Love the label with a horse wearing a cowboy hat, you just want to be friends with that horse! The IPA pours a slightly cloudy orange-ish body with a moderate amount of snow white head on top that gradually diminishes to leave behind a mild amount of lacing on the glass. 

Aroma: If you've ever had Black Wheat's Empire IPA, you can tell that this is in the same kind of style, a more bitter-forward West Coast style IPA. It's a moderately bitter IPA with notes of pine, grapefruit, slight hint of pineapple, Earl Grey tea, and a bit of a caramel maltiness to it. 

Taste: It pretty much shows off what I got from the aroma, it's a West Coast Style Micro IPA with a bitter hop presence to it that's predominantly pine, a bit of a leafy hop presence to it, grapefruit, a tad bit of a pepperiness to it, a hint of Earl Grey tea, slight caramelly sweetness, and lastly a bit of lemon at the end.

Overall Thoughts: This is one of my go-to beers at Black Wheat since it ever came out, it's very Sessionable and the kind of IPA that I keep missing (in the world of Hazy IPAs), it's flavourful and hoppy and it tastes like it's a full ABV IPA. Pretty smooth (for this IPA lover), a tad sweet and tropical, moderately bitter, caramel malt.