Review: Meadowlark Brewing's Antisocial Media Brut IPA


I was in Minot, ND a few weeks ago for the North Dakota State Fair, which is something I tend to do just about every year with my parents. While there, I try to sample some of the local and American craft beer that I can't get back home.  The friendly and knowledgeable staff over at Broadway Liquor gave some awesome recommendations.. I could easily spend a whole afternoon in there not knowing what to try,  as well as trying beers from their growler bar. This was the final bottle I purchased on my way out of the store to head back to Canada - Sidney, Montana's Meadowlark Brewing's Antisocial Media Brut IPA, which is beer #3 out of their Sipster Series.

From the label: "This dried-out, dry-hopped IPA is saturated with Azacca hops and distilled hop oils, giving it bright overtones of citrus and tropical fruits. Brut means "very dry" and this beer is as dry as British comedy.

My iceman pour is on fleek. I got haze for days in my Instajam. Facespace, and Tweeter. NE IPA is my go-to style, but anything older than 24 hours is a drain pour. With this check-in, I just achieved the "King Juicy" status on UnTipped. I'm sorry, what? I wasn't listening. 'Do I ever put my phone away?' how can I drink beer without my phone?"

Yeah... this beer is definitely here to mock social media users and myself.. ha! As for me, if I didn't have debilitating anxiety, I wouldn't need to seek the comfort of my phone's screen.

Appearance: Well it didn't start off well.. it was a gusher the second I popped off the cap, but as soon as I poured it into the glass, the foam diminished pretty quickly. The beer's body has a fairly bright, cloudy golden straw appearance to it with a light amount of carbonation, a good amount of lacing trinkling the side of the glass and a quarter finger's thickness of snow white foam on top of the beer.

Aroma: The first thing I get from here is a grassy hop profile, hint of lemon, a hint of I'm thinking grapefruit, a tad bitter with pine but on the edge of being not-so-fresh anymore.

Taste: Notes of lemon, tangerine peel, grassy hops and a hint of pine are all what I mostly get. There's a sweetness of caramel. Mildly tropical with lemon being the dominating flavour with a hint of yeastiness backing it up. It's dry but not overly, a bit carbonated on the tongue and leaves behind a light amount of pear-like aftertaste at the end.

Overall Thoughts: When I was described what a Brut IPA was a few months back, I was expecting something as dry as a sour or a Farmhouse Ale, it's neither - I haven't found a Brut yet that's really dry - this included. That being said, nice easy drinking IPA with notes of lemon, a bit of grassy hop profile to it, a bit of tangerine and pine. When I bought this, I knew it was a Brut IPA but my mind was thinking afterwards that I bought a Saison/Farmhouse because that's all I was eyeing for during my visit at Broadway Liquor as it's a style you just don't see much of! Great to try some new beer out of Montana - so one day I'll have to do a brewery tour of North Dakota and Eastern Montana, there's new breweries popping up all the time!

As for me being antisocial and being on my phone.. I'll never change. 5.5% ABV, 25 IBUs

https://meadowlarkbrewing.com/beer/antisocial-media/

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