Twin Sails Slam Dank IPA: Twin Sails has been pumping out all kinds of unique and interesting IPA’s lately and I felt this one deserved to be called out as my first IPA of the week. According to their website, this beer was double dry hopped and loaded with Mosaic, Columbus and Apollo hops to deliver a marijuana like “dank” aroma and flavour. It comes in at a strength of 7.5% abv and should still be available in some private liquor stores or on tap at the brewery. If you want some you better hurry as neither option will be available for much longer.

Aroma and Appearance: It pours a slightly cloudy copper colour (if you rouse the can before pouring it gets hazier) with an average level of carbonation, two fingers of pearl coloured foam and a bit of foam lacing as it the beer disappears from the glass. The aroma is very pungent as you get a strong whiff as soon as you open the can. Slam dank is aptly names since you’ll notice quite the 420 dank impression at first followed by nuances of grass, pine, lemon and wet sweet hay with a caramel candy accompaniment that strengthens as it warms.

Flavour: Up front there’s a prominent sweet bread and caramel malt presence that rolls off the tip of your tongue before being replaced by mandarin oranges and gooseberries in the middle (they call it candied tropical fruit, which also works). As the fruit flavours subside a salient dankness approaches the back part of your palate which is riddle with pine resin and finishes with a medium bitter grassy aftertaste.

Overall Impression: I really liked how this beer delivered the flavour profile, both the order and the intensity levels. It started with a great malt impression, led into a great fruity middle and finished with a very pleasant and satisfying bitterness. Upon pouring the bottom third of the can, I did feel the added cloudiness took away from the flavour a bit (the texture hid it) so I recommend a day or two in the fridge with a careful pour. The on tap experience was identical to the canned beer.

Rating: I gave it an excellent rating of 8.5/10, well made and a great example of a modern day boundary pushing West Coast IPA.

Food Pairing: Spicy chicken wings, chévre, or anything with a kick to it.

They’ve already got a new IPA out and seem to have a pretty steady variant release schedule now which is great for us hop heads!