Fiddlehead Brewing Second Fiddle IPA: Brewed in Shelburne, VT this Double IPA comes in at a strength of 8.2% abv with 80 IBUs in an easily crushable tallboy can sold in 4 packs.

Flavour: Upfront, it’s all incredibly doughy malts, like a sweet bread or sweet biscuit dough with bits of caramel. In the middle, all the fruits come out to play highlighting lychee and peach skin, with hints of pear, orange zest and tangerine citrus. At the end this wonderful Double IPA completes itself with lemon rind and a wood resin bitter finish that’s both intense and soothingly satisfying as it goes down.

Overall Impression: You hear a lot about Heady Topper from Vermont, people all over North America are obsessed with it (and rightly so) however there’s lots of other great breweries there who make amazing like this one. The serving size is perfect for this style, just enough beer to make a relaxing evening but not so much that your wobbling after drinking just one – two might be pushing it though, which is hard to resist after the first.

Rating: Awesome at 9/10, these were my go-to for a solid week while they lasted, simply high quality beer that was flavourful and refreshing.

Food Pairing: To complement the fruits and dough, I’d pair it with some mildly spicy back ribs or other savory meat.

Looks like they have some kick ass glassware at the brewery, maybe perhaps one day when I make a trip out there I’ll grab some!