6.5 % ABV. Venn Brewing (in Collaboration with Dangerous Man), Minneapolis, MN.
Three Facts:
Fact #1: In it's over 7 years of existence, Dangerous Man Brewing Company has appeared here in the Bitter Nib a mere 14 times. It's not because I don't feel that they are making quality beers, quite the contrary. It is a matter of proximity, or lack thereof. Remember that their beers can only be had at their taproom or the growler/crowler shop next door. When push comes to shove, I tend to stay on this side of the river. I have not actually crossed the Mississippi to visit North East Minneapolis and it's 10 or so breweries to purchase crowlers or growlers to take home and review for over 2 years. With one exception: on my birthday last June, our caravan of bikes traversed the Plymouth Avenue bridge to have some Dangerous Man beers, where I did not slow down the celebration to visit the crowler sales shop. If the bike trip from home in Uptown to 1300 2nd St. NE weren't an hour long, maybe I'd go more often. As it is, I tend to stay in my neighborhood for beers more often, and "my neighborhood" includes all of South Minneapolis. (Also, breweries of downtown Minneapolis belong to this area, and let's throw in Surly, while we're at it.)
Fact #2: Evidence of my prejudice towards breweries more local to my own home is that in it's less than three years of existence, Venn Brewing of South Minneapolis has appeared here in the Nib 50 times. The last such occasion was in February, when I brought home 3 crowlers to review. A few weeks back, Venn was one of the first to my knowledge to respond to our current crisis with home delivery. Before I had a chance to take advantage of this, they reversed this decision and decided that it was best not to, after all, for the good of everyone. We're all reacting differently to this pandemic because we've never dealt with it before, and we're responding with different degrees of caution and/or panic. They didn't stop brewing, though, and encouraged customers to purchase their crowlers at local stores.
Fact #3: Long ago, I swore that I would stop purchasing "milkshake IPAs" in order to stop myself from complaining about them. Without checking, I would wager that it was a Dangerous Man beer that urged this on. And yet, when visiting a local(-ish) liquor store and seeing the varieties of Venn available, this is what I chose. Despite it all. I keep picking them and hoping against hope that my opinion has changed. What hasn't changed is that the breweries still love to make them, and plenty of other people still love to drink them. I paid $10 for a crowler I may or may not like, just to have another Venn (/Dangerous Man) beer to write about, at a time when I don't know where my money's coming from, or when. I hope it's worth it.
Quite haze. Golden hued, Bright ivory head, settling in.In the nose: Mango greets the senses first, coconut follows, then traces of the pink guava. If there's hops here, they're keeping it quiet.
In the mouth: Holy Crap! Big time sweetness on first sip, mango and coconut blended together, guava in the back. Brief traces of bitterness, slight glimpse of hops on the palate.
One more time for those who didn't hear it the first 10 or 20 times I've written it: If you're trying to remove or cover up or greatly reduce hop bitterness, you no longer have an India Pale Ale. "Milkshake IPAs" are not IPAs.
Okay, back to it: Medium bodied. Long, sweet, fruity finish. Merest glimmer of hop bitterness. Practically none. Sweet and fruity, and not an IPA. Milkshake...Feh!
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