Beer Review: Southern Tier Hop Sun

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 5.1 percent

Appearance: Hop Sun has the gold and shiny appearance of a regular American lager, but with a slight haze towards the upper portions of the beer. There was a huge rush of carbonation bubbles flowing upwards. The head was a thin layer of white. I guess that it would wander off after a bit and not leave much lacing. I got quite the opposite. The head actually lingered atop the body for the majority of the drink. Overall, this has a nice summery, crisp look to it.

Smell: This emanated a lot of citrus from the hop content. It was closer to a grapefruit scent on the citrus spectrum, if there is such a thing. I guess I just invented it. The label says "one type of hop and three malts." I was surprised to have the scent dominated by hop notes and not having much malt noticeable.

Taste: I spoke too soon. I was smacked in the face with a lot of sweet malt as soon as I took my first sip. The sweetness dominated up front. As the beer glided toward the back, it translated into a bitter, yet sharp finish. The hops don't interfere with much in the taste. The rush of carbonation bubbles made for a flourish of cool textures in the mouth.

Overall Rating:

The smell of this brew confused me for a bit, but I can definitely let that slide. I don't get to bring up the textures of beer much on this blog, but this is among the best in terms of texture, bubbles etc. that I've had during my stint of writing this blog. The citrus doesn't come from lemon or orange, but from the hops. It wasn't overly dominating, but complimented the rest of the beer the way I like it.