Judge's Review: 87 Rating - Crush by Reuben's Brews

Crush by Reuben's Brews was judged as (21A) American IPA under the 2015 BJCP Guidelines. It is considered as a Hazy IPA. The hazy moniker, style and trend these days is simply a beer that is unfiltered. Most beers are filtered accordingly, except wheat beers that include Hefeweizen and Belgian Wits. Why leave the beer unfiltered? One of the reasons is flavor profile and taste. Try a filtered and unfiltered version of the same beer and one can taste the difference. There is more hop profile, bitterness and qualities in an unfiltered beer. A filtered version will remove some of these qualities.

The appearance of this beer revealed a pale (grapefruit) like color hue, obviously very cloudy " hazy " with a very nice carbonation. It was almost white in color. The aroma of this beer had citrus all over it. I detected aromas of grapefruit, orange and lemons!

The flavor of this beer had a very strong bitterness presence along with a malt sweetness in the background. This beer is about hops and specifically Citra hops as again I detected flavors of grapefruit, lemon and oranges. For me, I just think that there was too much of a citrus flavor that could have been dialed down a bit. It was almost like drinking a citrus drink and was a bit overwhelming, at least for me. With these strong citrus flavors, it was almost mouth-puckering as well having to swallow twice after a sip. The body and mouthfeel were medium and with very good carbonation. The overall impression is that this is a nicely made hazy IPA with very ' assertive ' citrus flavors that may or may not appeal to all drinkers.