Otter Creek Brewing's Backseat Berner IPA (2016)

Another beer from my hoard. I don't know why this one was so hard to take out of the hoard.. maybe it was the nostalgia of visiting Vermont and not wanting the vacation to be over? Otter Creek Brewing is a brewery out of Middlebury, Vermont. I picked up a six pack of their Backseat Berner IPA because I loved the label. For some reason I assumed that this beer was named after Bernie Sanders, seeing that he was running for President back when I was visiting his state. Seeing that it had a bit of a hippy vibe, I was sure it was going to be named after him.. but actually, the beer is named after the brewmaster's Bernese dog.

Two years later, I finally check out this beer. Sometimes in beer reviews.. never is better than late.

Appearance: The beer pours a hefty cloudy orange body with a moderate amount of carbonation, a good amount of sediment and a finger's worth of white head on top. The head doesn't really go down much, but it does leave behind a good amount of lacing on the side of the glass.

Aroma: Definitely should have reviewed this two years ago instead of now but I get a caramel malt sweetness up front, a moderate amount of bitter pine notes, notes of citrus (lemon, grapefruit, and a good amount of orange). Fairly sweet, a tad herbal but so far it's held up pretty decently considering it's two years old.

Taste: I get herbal and spicy hop presence right from the get-go, it's a bit of a peppery spice with notes of pine, a bit of grass, and a lingering bitter aftertaste from the pine. There's a bit of a caramel presence from the malt, yet has a bit of a bready taste as well. There's also a bit of a hint of the tropical fruitiness that we saw in the aroma, mostly a faint lemon and orange presence. Fairly sweet, bready and still surprisingly hoppy.

Overall Thoughts: For it being two years old, this bottle held up better than a lot of IPAs I have, perhaps having it in a fridge the entire time helped? I was expecting it to fall flat like many IPAs I forget to drink at the appropriate time, but this one was pretty decent. Seeing that this beer is now in 16oz cans, I'll have to try it out in can form sometime.. if I make it back to Vermont anytime soon (which I won't unfortunately).

http://ottercreekbrewing.com/beers/backseat-berner