Review: Collective Arts IPA No. 8


So, I just reviewed Collective Arts' IPA No 7 only moments ago, now it's time to check out IPA No 8. IPA No 8 is a Double IPA brewed with Simcoe, Moutere and Columbus Hops. Collective Arts describes this as "Our biggest and just possibly our most beautiful IPA Series release to date. IPA #8 is double dry hopped with Simcoe, Moutere and Columbus hops, so you should expect a cloudy bright pour and intense fruit, dank citrus and pine notes. Best enjoyed as soon as you can get it in your house." 8.0% ABV

It took me a while to finally review this one. I noticed on the label that their artist is from Saskatoon, which I thought "hmm, interesting", but pondering a bit further, the artist (Chris Morin) is a member of the great Saskatoon band Slow Down, Molasses! Thanks to CBC Radio 3 back in the day (RIP), I became of their fan of their music well over a decade ago. How cool is that?

Appearance: This beer pours a very hazy and light yellowish-orange with a moderate amount of sediment floating around in the beer. The head, like IPA No 7 is thick and frothy to start off, only to diminish to just a bit of a layered lacing and a light amount of film on top of the beer.

Aroma: The second the can cracked open, the overly aromatic presence of the hops and malts just hit me right in the face. Compared to IPA No 7, this is much more "in your face", which I like.. even though they were both awesome as it is. The aroma is a hefty dose of pineapple, followed by some mango, orange peel, lemon and also notes of oats, wheat and a tad bit of graininess from the barley. This is very parfumic to me (is that even a word? Likely not), and has a very juicy presence to it that I want more of. There's a mild pine bitterness coming around, but for the most part, very juicy and tropical-forward.

Taste: I could tell from the very first sip that this beer was 8% ABV, it's quite decently boozy with a good deal of caramel maltiness to it. Definitely incredibly hazy and juicy with a hefty tropical presence to it. I get notes of pineapple and mango right from the beginning, there's also a bit of a woodiness to it, as well as a hint of lemon. For 8% it's quite smooth but I do feel like the booze does creep up and even gives a bit of a burn in the throat at times.

Overall Thoughts: Damned tasty brew by Collective Arts.. in fact it's definitely a lot better than IPA No 7, which I enjoyed a lot. This is full on tropical but not overly so, it retains a moderate bitterness to it and has a nice caramel malt profile as well. I've only consumed a quarter of this beer but I'm definitely feeling it, whoo.

https://collectiveartsbrewing.com/beer/ipa-8/


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