784. Triton Brewing – O’Rye-n Galaxy

Posted By kkozlen on Oct 17, 2015 | 0 comments

It’s been a pretty good Saturday so far, watching my son’s last fall soccer game and working on the yard for a bit. Yesterday, my buddy Kevin from Indianapolis dropped off one of the greatest donations ever, which included many, many beers from Indianapolis and a Westy 12 he picked up on his recent trip to Belgium. I can’t thank him enough. Since he brought a couple growlers, I figured I’d better break into those first.

Location: Poured into a Sam Adams Perfect pint glass from the growler at my home in Bloomington, IL

Numbers: 5.1% ABV, 39 IBUs, ~150 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: It’s perfectly golden in color and pretty clear. It has a thick, creamy head, with great retention and lacing. The aroma is a mix of brightly fresh cut grass and tropical fruits.

Taste & Feel: The body is light-medium and the mouthfeel is quite crisp. The crispness makes it tough to taste flavors up front, but there is a tropical fruit taste behind it, which grows in the middle. The finish is a big juicy tropical fruit hop flavor with some bitterness and rye spiciness underneath. The rye spiciness and bitterness are what stick around in the aftertaste for a minute or two.

Food Pairing: There’a a lot of tropical citrus fruit flavor in this beer, so I’d go with a contrasting flavor and pair this beer with spicy food. What immediately came to mind for me as a great pairing was Mexican food with green chilis or a stuffed poblano pepper.  I also think it would be pretty good with jalapeno peppers, like jalapeno poppers or simply a plate of nachos covered in jalapenos.

Overall Impression: The Galaxy hops really take over this beer with a lot of tropical citrus-fruit flavors, but the rye spiciness adds a nice flavor behind it.  I liked that it had more hop flavor than bitterness, and thought the balance of the two was good.  Other than the rye spiciness in the background, the hops definitely overtook the malts.  Overall, I thought this was a pretty good beer, and if you’re a hophead that likes west coast style IPAs, you’ll love this beer. I can’t wait to try the other Triton beers Kevin brought me.

My Rating: