Down from the mountains

A selection of beers from Odell today, none of them brand new releases as far as I know.

Pink Sippin' Pretty is fruited and sour, and for a change is actually sour, though not in an especially complex way. There's a realistic raspberry  and strawberry sweetness. The can says I should expect açaí, guava and elderberry. I guess my tastebuds don't run that exotic. OK, maybe there's a slight tropical buzz in there, but not much. It's only 4.5% ABV and it's not thin and watery, so that's a plus. It's not particularly beery either, however. If you want something lightly tart but mostly alcopoppy, this will do.

I can't believe I haven't had Drumroll before. It's been around for ages but I couldn't find any reference to me drinking it so into the basket it went. It's a pale ale of 5.3% ABV, pale orange with a slight haze. The flavour is a mix of citrus pith and savoury dregs, mostly quite serious and bitter. I even get a hint of smoky phenols. Against this there's a somewhat cloying ice cream sweetness, tasting like vanilla with an element of sticky boiled sweet thrown in too. It's not in any way polished or refined, giving the impression of something dashed off in order to meet a pale ale spec without too much thought. A little more hop bitterness or turning it sweeter with crystal malt would have made it more recognisable, but as-is this is just confusing. Even cleaning the yeast gunk out would help. This is far from Odell's best work.

Mountain Standard I had in its black IPA form a few years back. This is a very very pale IPA of the same name, though the ABV is down to 6.5% from 8.1. There's only a very slight haze rather than full-on murk, and frankly that makes me feel like cheering when I come to American IPA these days. A light lemony spritz forms the aroma while the flavour has some softer, juicier fruit going on: cantaloupe, apricot and lychee. There's a grainy crispness to balance this, but not much by way of bittering. The texture is soft and creamy, with plenty of substance but no alcohol heat. This is a very easy-going beer, quite sessionable tasting despite the strength. No mad complexities, no fancy gimmicks and no off flavours. Just fruity American IPA created in an accessible way.

A Colorado brewery doing its best work in the IPA sphere is hardly news, but here it is anyway.