Outcast Brewing Neon Nightmare shows some interesting promise for the Canadian hazegame

I am unsure whether Outcast Brewing is even open yet, but their beers are solid. This Calgary upstart previously was brewing out of Cold Garden, but the work is all their own. The Canadian foray into the hazegame is dogeared by all of the tropes associated with brewers north of the wall: gentle, pillowy soft demeanor, genial mouthfeel, and reeking of tangelos. If Hoof Hearted represents the excesses of American trub, then this is the whole other end of the spectrum wherein the frothy carb is almost apologetic in its alpha acid execution. It’s lightly drying and has a floral cum de grapefruit zest on the swallow that leans towards watery instead of pine-driven. I’d prefer the softer touch and the execution is welcome in a land of increasingly messy slurry cans. Typical Canuck shit. Patrick Schnarr bought me a new toaster, but that doesn’t stop me from noting that while he lags behind the four hazeman of the yeastpocolypse: Trillium, Monkish, Other Half and Treehouse, Outcast sits firmly above most “pretty solid” local offerings, which is tough to say in an increasingly derivative marketplace where everyone is slanging that O-Bang.

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