Blue Buck - Phillips Brewing (Canada - British Columbia - Victoria)

Blue Buck - Phillips Brewing (Canada - British Columbia - Victoria) 5.0%

Full gold in a glass with a resilient if not overly large head of foam. Nice caramel touch to the slightly raw malt flavour that reminds me of a malthouse. The hops are subtle but lend balancing hints of cedar and forest tones to the flavour. This beer delivers as promised as a tasty session ale, one that features more malt than hops character.

Hoperation Tripel Cross - Phillips Brewing Company (Canada - BC - Victoria) 7.3%

Hoperation Tripel Cross - Phillips Brewing Company (Canada - BC - Victoria) 7.3%

A slightly cloudy full gold in a glass. A crazily hoppy aroma of melon, fresh-cut grass but also some nectar and floral touches from the yeast and a high alcohol smell. Very bitter flavour and aftertaste: bordering on the alkaline taste from accidentally chewing a non-chewable pill. The high alcohol comes through a bit at first mixing with the hops taste to taste a bit like a solvent (floor polish or something) but mellows and mixes with the Tripel flavours. The melon hops with a pine chaser dominates the flavour with only touches of the floral yeast tones coming through in dribs and drabs. The mouthfeel is a bitter thin for a tripel which I expect to be thicker than most beers. This Belgian IPA is a tad overhopped to my taste, if they backed off on the hops just a bit some of the malt and yeast flavour might come through just a little better. All that being said, Hoperation Tripel Cross is probably pretty appealing to hops fanatics even though it isn't the best Belgian IPA I've had or the best Phillips Brewing Company product I have had.

Electric Unicorn White IPA - Phillips Brewing Company (Canada - BC - Victoria) 6.5%

Electric Unicorn White IPA - Phillips Brewing Company (Canada - BC - Victoria) 6.5%

It pours a cloudy gold in a glass with a frothy head that fades quickly but leaves nice lacing. Lots of melon (honeydew), unripened mango, passionfruit, some fresh cut grass and a touch of something astringent. Very bitter taste with a pine hops character that didn't stand out in the aroma. A smorgasbord of fruit flavours (orange, mango and passionfruit) come out in the unique blend of hops and wheat beer spice (coriander and cloves) even though the ingredients list only includes coriander and orange peel on top of barley, wheat, hops, water and yeast. A bitter and very appetizing finish with an aftertaste of toast and umami.

Electric Unicorn is great beer with a fun label and bottle cap. This tasty White IPA has a hilarious description /back story on the bottle (see below).