While millennials and Gen Zer’s often get lumped together as the “young group,” they are certainly not the same. (Although, it is kind of hard to tell with all the Y2K fashion floating around.)
But speaking as a millennial, we definitely have different approaches to life, a lot of which seems to come down to a sense of self-assuredness. That goes for shopping, socializing, self expression…and even going to the hair salon, apparently.
Alexis Rex (@rex.artistry), hairstylist and owner of Rex Artistry Salon in Maryland, gave a brilliant (and hilarious) demonstration of some key personality differences between her millennial clients and her Gen Z clients in a now viral TikTok video.
First, Rex played her Millennial Customer.
Millennial Customer gently knocks on the door and immediately expresses her gratitude. “Hey girl! So good to see you! So excited!”
But at the same time, Millennial Customer wants in no way to be an inconvenience, so she immediately comes back with, “Where should I put my purse? It’s okay, I’m just going to shove it in my own personal space so it’s not in your way. At all.”
Never one to demand attention, Millennial Customer wants a very subtle hair color change. Really, “it shouldn’t even look like I got my hair done.” Not “super bold,” not “in your face.”
Then after flooding the hair stylist with compliments, Millennial Customer (ever wanting to be a good student) will ask a bunch of follow-up questions about how to maintain the style.
Gen Z Customer bolts through the door with a “Hey queen!” like a hurricane (who has time to knock?!) and is ready to plop her stuff down anywhere. Unlike her millennial counterpart, Gen Z Customer is perfectly fine to take up space unapologetically and even show up with hair that “hasn’t been brushed in a month.”
Gen Z Customer also knows exactly what she wants, and it’s anything but subtle. “I wanna do like in-your-face, bold contrast…I wanna look like a different f**king person. Let’s do it.”
The confidence…it’s…palpable.
Gen Z Customer has a different approach to complementing her hairstylist: “Oh my god! F**king Queen! You did that! God I love you.”
No further questions. Gen Z Customer already knows her brand of hair care products, and it’s “Olaplex. All Olaplex.”
Rex’s post quickly racked up 8.6 million views, generating literally thousands of comments discussing how spot on her imitations were.
Millennials in particular chimed in, many of whom couldn’t help but applaud its accuracy of depicting how millennials seem to constantly be apologizing for simply existing.
“I’m a millennial and once I missed the armhole for a sec when putting the cape on. I was convinced I had ruined the appointment,” wrote one person.
Another added, ‘I’m sorry for my hair. I’m sorry my hair takes so long. I’m sorry I had to move my head, omg I’m sorry. You offered me a drink? I will say yes. And then sorry.”
Many were also quick to applaud how Gen Zer’s seemed to have no issues in this arena.
“Gen Z just fully owning the ability to take up space,” one person commented.
“As a millennial I love Gen Z so much. They’re so free to be themselves and so open,” wrote another.
While there may be differences between generations, we can all learn something from one another. And we all enjoy getting our hair did.
By the way, Rex didn’t leave out her Gen X or Boomer clients. She has plenty videos of her imitating them, as well as some nifty style predictions on her TikTok, found here.
It’s officially May and while that means that summer is technically still more than a month away, that won’t stop us from getting a head start planning an epic summer. For us, that means a ton of road trips. And while we’re all about checking out a giant ball of twine, an Airbnb shaped like a potato, or Niagara Falls, we also want to enjoy at least a little beer along the way.
While we’ve mentioned our affinity for road-tripping to breweries and beer cities in the past, today we’re looking squarely at the beer festivals you’ll want to attend this summer. And lucky for you, there are a lot. If you really wanted to get wacky with it, you could begin in late May and hit up nine outstanding beer festivals before finishing your memorable summer at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. Sure, you’d be crisscrossing and double back across the country from Florida to Alaska, but it would totally be worth it.
If you can’t swing that, maybe you can at least hit up one or two of these beer-fueled events. Keep scrolling to see them all.
Thread City Hop Fest – Willimantic, Connecticut (May 21st)
Thread City Hop Fest
Craft beer fans will descend on Willimantic, Connecticut from 1-5 pm on May 21st to attend the Thread City Hop Fest. For only $45 ($55 on the day of), you can sample beer from more than 70 breweries in Connecticut, New England, the Northeast, and beyond. Besides the brews, fans can also enjoy live music and food. organized by Willimantic Brewing Company, proceeds of the tickets will go to local charities.
Why You Should Go:
So, not only are you enjoying some amazing beer, but you’re also helping some great causes. For travelers, Willimantic is only an hour and a half from Boston. Why not make it a trip to Boston, the beer festival, and maybe even stop in Cape Cod for the day?
Great Alaska Craft Beer And Home Brew Festival – Haines, Alaska (May 27th)
Visit Haines
You might not normally think about Alaska when you think of beer (although Alaskan Brewing Company makes some outstanding beers), but the Great Alaska Craft Beer And Home Brew Festival might change that. Alaska’s longest-running festival and home brewing contest, the event takes place on May 27th in Haines (less than 45 minutes from the US/Canadian border).
Why You Should Go:
The festival features tons of beer sampling, beer tasting events, great food, and even a 5K and 10K run. Also known as the “Adventure Capital of Alaska”, the area is home to giant mountains, beautiful rivers, and unrivaled scenery. Also, there will be beer.
Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival – Paso Robles, California (June 3rd)
Firestone Walker
Firestone Walker is a big name in the craft beer world, so you know an event thrown by the Northern California staple is a big deal. Created as a way for craft brewers and drinkers to come together and enjoy some frosty IPAs, stouts, and everything in between, the event benefits the nonprofit Paso Robles Pioneer Day.
Why You Should Go:
The festival features more than fifty-five breweries in the North California town of Paso Robles. On top of Firestone Walker being located there, it’s an area well-known for its wineries and olive groves. After (or before) you’ve had your fill of beer, stop by one of the many wineries.
Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival – Atlantic City, New Jersey (June 3rd-4th)
Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival
Atlantic City will be home to more than just gamblers and beachgoers the first weekend of June — that’s when the Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival will take place. The event, which is presented by the Ocean Casino Resort, is held at Bader Field.
Why You Should Go:
Take the short trip from New York City or the surrounding area to enjoy more than 100 breweries, tons of food vendors, and music from Dropkick Murphy’s, 311, and more. Awesome musical acts and beer? What else are you doing that weekend?
If you’re a skier, snowboarder, or outdoor enthusiast, you already know about the appeal of Vail, Colorado as a center for outdoor activities. On June 17th, it will also be the place to be for beer drinkers. Celebrating its seventh anniversary, the event features from than fifty breweries.
Why You Should Go:
Instead of simply being an event where you sample beer and then go home and regale your friends about all the beer you tried, you actually get to vote on the best beers out of hundreds of possibilities. The winning brewery gets a “Golden Tap Handle.” Add keg bowling, great food options, and live music and you have a great day.
Did we mention that Vail is an outdoors lover’s dream? Not a bad spot to hike or bike off those carbs.
Vermont Brewers Festival – Burlington, Vermont (July 21st and 22nd)
Vermont Brewers Festival
In the hierarchy of brewing, it’s hard to beat the overall quality of the craft beer coming out of Vermont. If you don’t simply want to drive to Vermont and look at cows and eat Ben and Jerry’s ice cream while only stopping at one or two breweries, you’re probably better off checking out the Vermont Brewers Festival.
Why You Should Go:
Located in Burlington on the edge of Lake Champlain, you can peep the Adirondack Mountains while you sip beers from more than 30 breweries from Vermont and the surrounding states. Maybe, after a few beers, you’ll spot the legendary Lake Champlain monster lovingly called “Champy”.
Professional and home brewers as well as beer fans will descend on Orlando on July 24th-the 26th to attend the Florida Brewers Conference, a place for workshops, networking, and a lot of beer drinking. More than 300 brewers are expected to attend this weekend-long event.
Why You Should Go:
Those attending will be able to attend various events including a keynote speaker as well as sample countless beers and get a complimentary sampling glass. One of the highlights of the weekend is sensory training in terms of brewing. You’ll learn how to find brewing errors, off-flavors from packaging errors, and more. Afterward, you can stop by the Magic Kingdom.
Mammoth Festival Of Beers And Bluesapalooza – Mammoth Lake, California (August 3rd-6th)
Mammoth Festival Of Beers And Bluesapalooza
What could be better than a beer festival in an idyllic mountain/lake town? A beer festival that’s also a blues and food festival featuring the likes of Robert Randolph Band, Larkin Poe, Kenny Wayne Shepard Band, and many more.
Why You Should Go:
Add to that, there will be more than 80 breweries featuring IPAs, lagers, pale ales, and any other style you’ll crave while you listen to some amazing music. Did we mention it’s all taking place in a picturesque Northern California resort lake town.
Oak Park Micro Brew Review – Oak Park, Illinois (August 19th)
Oak Park Micro Brew Review
Celebrating its sixteenth anniversary, Oak Park Micro Brew Review is one of the longest-running beer festivals in the Chicagoland area. Unlike some events where a stadium or civic center is the site, the streets of downtown Oak Park are closed and filled with musical venues, mouth-watering food, and more than sixty breweries sampling delicious, frosty brews (as well as hard cider and hard seltzer).
Why You Should Go:
Chicago is a great destination for a summer vacation already. You can take in a Cubs or White Sox game, enjoy the nightlife and restaurants of the “Second City” and then take in a beer festival in nearby Oak Park.
The Great American Beer Festival 2023– Denver, Colorado (September 21st-23rd)
The Great American Beer Festival
No summer beer festival tour is complete without the epic grand finale that is the Great American Beer Festival. Not only is this the event where we learn which beers are the best of the best with judges sampling and determining gold, silver, and bronze medals in every beer style imaginable, it’s also a place to sample more than 500 breweries and over 2,000 beers.
Every other beer festival is dwarfed by this one. It’s a great way to end your summer.
Why You Should Go:
The Great American Beer Festival is the premiere event for beer fans. More than simply a beer festival, it’s the place to see what’s trending in the beer world, learn which beers are award-worthy for the year, all while sampling more exceptional beers than you can possibly imagine.
Back in April, Jamie Foxx suffered a “medical complication” that required the actor to be hospitalized. At the time, his daughter Corinne Foxx said the actor was “on his way to recovery,” but then weeks went by with little in the way of updates. In early May, it was reported that the actor was still hospitalized and that he’ll be replaced by Nick Cannon as the host of Beat Shazam.
That report kicked off a whirlwind of rumors about Foxx’s health, which reached a crescendo this week as speculation ran wild on social media that the actor is on his deathbed. Fortunately, that’s not the case. Foxx’s daughter took to Instagram on Friday to set the record straight with a very surprising update.
“Update from the family: Sad to see how the media runs wild. My Dad has been out of the hospital for weeks, recuperating. In fact, he was playing pickleball yesterday! Thanks for everyone’s prayers and support!”
Corinne ended the Instagram Story with a promise of future updates. “We have an exciting work announcement coming next week too!” she wrote.
Setting aside the online rumors, Corinne’s update jibes with what the family has been saying all along: Foxx is in recovery. It also corroborates Kevin Hart’s update from last week when he shared that the actor is “getting better.”
“Everybody’s prayers, everybody’s love, energy — all that stuff is seen and felt,” Hart said and Foxx later confirmed with an Instagram post.
It’s Janelle Monáe’s world, and we all live in it. Jason Isbell is just glad to be along for the ride. After several clips of Monáe flashing their bare breast to the crowd went viral (as did her “Lipstick Lover” visual), social media was flooded with varying opinions. While some begged for more, others weren’t pleased with the musician. However, Isbell is confused by the backlash over Monáe’s NSFW video.
He tweeted, “Wait, there are people who don’t like Janelle’s video? Seriously I don’t know wtf you people want if it isn’t that,” adding, “There are some things we all just agree it’s awesome so we can go about our business. Like gold, diamonds, Outkast, and this video.”
Wait there are people who DON’T like Janelle’s video? Seriously I don’t know wtf you people want if it isn’t that
Isbell isn’t the only musician impressed by the video. Cardi B uploaded (and quickly deleted) a sexual meme to give her stamp of approval.
Over the last few weeks, the musician has let it all hang out as they count down the days to the release of their forthcoming album, The Age Of Pleasure. But, eventually, the musician decided to lean into their freedom of expression nixing their designer duds at the 2023 Met Gala for a string bikini which she then wore as she danced atop a New York bar.
Monáe doesn’t care about the backlash, writing on Twitter, “Titties out for the next 15 years.” The entertainer has had quite the about-face since the “Float” singer threatened to withhold future releases after a fan joked about the Monáe former conservative black-and-white wardrobe.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Buffalo Trace is one of the most beloved distilleries in America. It’s also one of the most award-winning. Iconic names like Colonel E.H. Taylor, Blanton’s, Elmer T. Lee, Stagg, and Pappy Van Winkle all help that love (and hype) spread throughout the whiskey-drinking world. But as with any distillery worth its salt, there’s so much more than big names and awards to BT. Master Distiller Harlen Wheatley has been tinkering with an Experimental Collection of spirits for years now and he just dropped a brand new one.
Below, I’ll be reviewing the 26th edition of Wheatley’s Experimental Collection — a peated bourbon. Peated whiskey is traditionally a very Scottish thing but people have been playing around with peated malted barley in bourbon a little bit recently. Kings County Distillery and J. Riddle both have peated bourbons and even WhistlePig is getting in on the smoke game with their SmokeStock Whiskey.
Still, this is a very niche style of bourbon that’s in its infancy. That makes it fascinating to try. Check my review below.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
This whiskey is made from an experimental mash bill of high-rye bourbon that replaces the classic malted barley with peated malted barley. That’s barley that’s kilned (dried to stop germination) with peat as a heat source, which imbues smoke (phenols if you want to get all sciencey about it) into the barley grains. The whiskey was distilled and barreled back in November 2012 in only six barrels. Those barrels were stored on low floors of warehouses C and D for 10 years. Over that time, 65% of that whiskey evaporated.
Finally, the whiskey was batched and proofed down before bottling before a run through a chill filter.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a mild sense of old cigar smoke in a leathery old library with a layer of vanilla pods, dark chocolate-covered marzipan, and rich and butter toffee next to deeply stewed stone fruits with a dash of woody spice.
Palate: The palate is silken and lush with a sense of gomme syrup (it’s almost velvety) that gives way to brown butter vanilla malt over salted toffee and smoky campfire burnt marshmallow with a faint whisper of smoked prune and cherry.
Finish: The end leans into the campfire smokiness as the vanilla, fruit, and marzipan fade out, leaving you with a sense of burnt sugars and vanilla tobacco pouches next to a lingering sense of burning sage, cinnamon bark, and allspice leaves that just inch into ashy bitterness.
Bottom Line:
The end of this really starts getting ashy and that can be a big turn-off for some people. I dig it in that it takes classic Kentucky bourbon and adds a whole new dimension in a subtle way that gently builds to boldness. The profile eases you into the peated smokiness.
Still, this is a really unique bourbon and feels like you really need a baseline to enjoy it. If you already dig the peat monsters of Islay and the sugar bombs of Kentucky, then this is so going to be your jam. If you’re coming in cold, this could be a very hard experience to get your head around.
Ranking:
88/100 — this is a solid B+. Overall, I enjoyed it but it also feels like there’s more to draw from this idea — it deserves further exploration.
Availability:
This is a whole hornet’s nest of an issue. This is highly allocated. Even the press release states that it’ll be available in “extremely limited quantities.” That means that the likelihood of you finding this at MSRP and not marked up to the hilt is “extremely” low to nil. Right now, retailers, bars, and restaurants are receiving their allocation. My best advice is to hit your favorite and best whiskey bar to see if they snagged one and try it there. Otherwise, you’re going to have to be a very good customer of a very good liquor store to score one of these.
And if that’s not the case, you’re going to have to pay a lot to buy one (think anything from $500 to $1,000 per bottle).
What has so far flown relatively under the radar is the album art, which features a topless Monáe swimming underwater. Previously shared versions of the cover made use of pixellation to censor Monáe’s nipples, but today (May 12), they took to social media to share the more revealing, uncensored version. The censored version is below, but Monaé’s tweet with the uncensored, NSFW version can be found here.
Wondaland Arts Society/Atlantic Records
In follow-up tweets, she also shared the names of the people behind the photo. She credits herself and Chuck Lightning for creative direction, Mason Rose as the photographer, Briana Garrido for production, and Joe R Perez and Free Marseille for art direction and design.
The Age Of Pleasure is out 6/9 via Wondaland Arts Society/Atlantic Records. Find more information here.
Janelle Monáe is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Kelly Clarkson has been a beloved celebrity since winning American Idol in 2002. Her fame increased with the rise of The Kelly Clarkson Show, on which she performs many covers, from The Weeknd’s “Take My Breath” to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License.” However, things behind the scenes aren’t as peachy as they seem.
In a new Rolling Stone article, employees both present and former told the publication that they are “overworked, underpaid, and that working at the show was traumatizing to their mental health,” according to writer Krystie Lee Yandoli.
A former employee said, “NBC is protecting the show because it’s their new money maker, but Kelly has no clue how unhappy her staff is.” Another former employee added, “I remember going up on the roof of the stage to cry, being like, ‘Oh, my gosh, what am I doing? Why am I putting myself through this?’”
One former employee described the show’s executive producer Alex Duda as a “monster,” saying, “I have a friend who’s an executive producer who warned me about taking this job, because apparently she has done this on every show she’s worked on.”
According to one current employee and 10 former employees, Clarkson is unaware of the toxic environment of the show, not realizing the struggles of lower-level staffers who have other jobs as babysitters, dog walkers, and Uber Eats drivers. A former employee clarified, “Kelly is fantastic. She is a person who never treats anyone with anything but dignity and is incredibly appreciative. I would be shocked if she knew. I’d be floored if she knew the staff wasn’t getting paid for two weeks of Christmas hiatus. The Kelly that I interacted with and that everyone knows would probably be pretty aghast to learn that.”
Kelly Clarkson is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
In March, Coca-Cola® and Warner Music Group’s WMX teamed up to introduce the Coca-Cola® Transformation Team, a talent search inspired by Coca-Cola® Move, the brand’s latest innovation that celebrates “the transformational power of music.” The entry period has since come and gone and three worthy artists were chosen: San Cha, Eduardo Marìa, and Kallitechnis.
The three were given quite the opportunity: an insightful roundtable discussion with Steve-O Carless, president of A&R for Warner Records. He sums up his philosophy, “An an artist, you want to be up to speed with how the business is forever transforming, ever evolving. When something doesn’t fit, I’ve learned you create it. I call it ‘taking the stairs,’ as opposed to waiting for the elevator.”
He also notes, “I find it disappointing when I see artists use old thinking, of what they think the record business is, to kind of set their goals. That’s a huge mistake.”
Those are both nice big-picture thoughts, but during the conversation, he got more granular as well, giving the three Coca-Cola® Transformation Team artists more specific and actionable ideas to consider. Overall, all parties involved had interesting things to say and the difference of perspectives presented strong learning opportunities, so check out the video above.
Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Amazon’s first year as the home of Thursday Night Football didn’t go especially well, in large part due to the fact that the games tended to be pretty bad. While the ratings were pretty solid, it was common to see fans complaining about the caliber of games, as the NFL wasn’t exactly putting marquee matchups on Amazon every week.
The league remedied that a bit this year, as the schedule for Thursday Night Football this time around seems to be better. Here’s what the schedule looks like this year:
While we’re still waiting to see if late season games can potentially get flexed to Thursdays, the schedule is a hit with Amazon’s top broadcaster. Jimmy Traina of Sports Illustrated reached out to Al Michaels to get his thoughts on the TNF slate, and he’s a big fan.
“Absolutely!” he says. “Love the way we come out of the gate. Three ‘A’ grade games. Two Aaron Rodgers games. Baltimore-Cincinnati, another good one. League did us a solid.
“I was raring to go the minute I saw the whole slate. Already thinking of story lines for each game, of which there is no shortage.”
Of course, an NFL schedule can look really good in May and, when you fast forward to the fall, it’s nowhere near as appealing due to teams being disappointments and big-name players getting hurt. But after how last year went, it’s hard to fault Michaels for feeling excited over this.
If you’ve paid attention to the beer world over the past decade or so, you know there are a lot of breweries operating in the US. At last count, well over 9,000. And while there are great options all over the country — from Vermont to Washington State — featuring endless styles of beer, you’d have a tough time finding a better state for brew, in general, and IPAs, specifically, than California. The state is home to more than 1,000 breweries on its own and San Diego is the undisputed nexus of the West Coast IPA universe.
Meaning that picking the ten best IPAs from California is no easy task. Still, we tried our very best — re-tasting the most popular, sought-after, beloved California-made IPAs to come up with this ranking. Regardless of their previous ratings, our metric was based on overall flavor and balance. Keep scrolling to see where your favorite IPA landed on this list.
This popular West Coast IPA from San Diego’s Ballast Point gets its name because its hoppy sting is reminiscent of the sting of the Sculpin fish. Citrus, fruit, and a gentle bite of hops make this a memorable beer.
Tasting Notes:
A nose of light caramel malts, lime peels, grapefruit, and floral hops greet you before your first sip. The palate is all citrus peels and pine needles with a fairly aggressive, biting hoppy finish. People love this beer, but it’s a little too one-dimensional and bitter for some.
Bottom Line:
Ballast Point Sculpin is like a blueprint for a classic West Coast IPA. But with only light malts, citrus, and pine… it’s fairly muted.
The name of this popular series of beers is a reference to one when the brewery feels you should drink the beer. Brewed to be fresh and imbibed as soon as possible, depending on the bottles or cans you buy, the drink by date will be listed. The last Stone Enjoy By IPA was 04.20.23 Hazy IPA.
Tasting Notes:
Brewed with Rakau and Citra hops, this hazy IPA begins with a nose of tangerine, ripe peach, mango, caramel malts, and floral, lightly dank pine. Drinking it reveals more peach and tangerine as well as bready malts, mango, caramelized pineapple, and gentle, floral hops. It leans a little on the sweeter side and could use a bit more balance.
Bottom Line:
This is a tasty hazy IPA. It’s juicy, sweet, and loaded with tropical fruit aroma and flavor. That said, it’s just a bit one-dimensional.
This hazy, juicy, unfiltered New England-style IPA was brewed with a proprietary English yeast strain as well as Simcoe, Galaxy, Mosaic, and Citra hops. This creates a lightly bitter, memorable beer filled with tropical fruit flavors.
Tasting Notes:
Classic hazy IPA aromas of ripe pineapple, peach, guava, and passionfruit greet your nose prior to your first sip. The palate continues this trend with tangerine, caramelized pineapple, mango, and more peach, The finish is lightly resinous and bitter, but there’s not much of a malt backbone to be found.
Bottom Line:
It’s obvious why this hazy IPA is wildly popular. It’s hazy, juicy, and loaded with tropical fruit flavors and a nice, dank, piney finish. It could use a little more malt character though.
This beer gets its name from the liberal use of Nelson Sauvin hops. Used both on the kettle and through dry-hopping, this hop variety gives the beer pine, tropical fruit, and citrus flavors. European rye malts give this beer a well-rounded flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
This IPA begins with aromas of caramelized pineapple, ripe peaches, mango, tangerine, and just a hint of peppery rye. This interesting start makes way for a palate of pineapple, orange peel, peach, guava, and even more rye. The finish is lightly bitter, dry, and filled with pine.
Bottom Line:
This is a well-balanced, highly drinkable IPA. The rye spice is a welcome addition and one that makes this the kind of beer you’ll go back to again and again.
This beer gets its name because this double IPA is hopped exclusively with Citra hops. The result is a surprisingly complex beer with a ton of lemon, mango, grapefruit, and pine. This is an IPA for the citrus fans.
Tasting Notes:
The nose starts with a healthy dose of caramel malts and works its way into grapefruit, tangerine, lime peel, and tropical fruit flavors. Drinking it reveals hints of more sweet malts, grapefruit, orange zest, lemongrass, light pepper, and floral, lightly resinous hops. Subdued bitterness at the finish.
Bottom Line:
Citra hops live up to their name — it’s a hop varietal bursting with citrus aroma and flavor. The folks at Noble Ale Works use it perfectly to make a citrus-filled yet balanced IPA.
This 8.5% ABV IPA might be called Citra, but it’s not just a one-trick pony by any means. On top of being dry-hopped with Citra hops, it’s also dry-hopped with Amarillo hops. This creates a balanced IPA with a ton of citrus, tropical fruit, and dank pine tree flavors.
Tasting Notes:
A backdrop of caramel malts leads to honeydew melon, ripe pineapple, grapefruit, and orange zest aromas on the nose. The palate is centered around more sweet malts, tangerine, grapefruit, peach, melon, berries, and just a hint of acidity. The finish is dry and semisweet with little bitterness.
Bottom Line:
The use of Citra and Amarillo hops gives this beer a great balance. It also has a great malt backbone to hold everything together nicely. A very well-rounded beer.
This award-winning IPA is brewed with Nelson Sauvin, Citra, and Centennial hops. It’s known for its well-balanced flavor profile featuring a mix of citrus, tropical fruit flavors, and a crisp, lightly bitter finish.
Tasting Notes:
Candied orange peel, caramelized pineapple, mango, ripe melon, and just a hint of floral, piney hops. Drinking it brings forth notes of lime peel, lemongrass, honeydew melon, pineapple, mango, and a nice kick of lightly bitter pine needles at the very end. It’s not overwhelming though.
Bottom Line:
This is a very well-balanced IPA. Everything seems to be working together in perfect unity to make a fruity, dank, highly drinkable beer.
One of the most sought-after beers in America, Russian River Pliny The Elder is definitely the easier to find of the Pliny duo. Brewed with Centennial, CTZ, Amarillo, and Simcoe hops, this beer is renowned for its fresh flavor and perfect balance of malts and hops.
Tasting Notes:
Classic West Coast IPA flavors of lemon zest, grapefruit, tangerine, caramel malts, and floral, herbal, piney hops start the nose off on the right foot. Drinking it reveals more grapefruit, ripe orange, lemongrass, caramel malts, and more dank pine. The finish is dry, crisp, and has a bit of hop bitterness that only adds to the overall experience.
Bottom Line:
The hops and malts selected for this beer give it a ridiculously complex flavor profile that still manages to be well-balanced. There’s a reason this beer is so popular.
This 8.1% ABV double IPA was double dry-hopped with Nelson Sauvin, Galaxy, and Citra hops. The result is a fruity, dry, lightly bitter IPA well-suited for warm-weather drinking.
Tasting Notes:
A vibrant nose of passionfruit, mango, guava, pineapple, peach, tangerine, and literally any tropical fruit you can imagine greets you before your first sip. The palate is filled with more tropical fruit goodness, but there are also some berries, honey sweetness, and a nice hoppy, resinous bitter finish that will leave you craving more.
Bottom Line:
This beer is like a tropical fruit salad meets your favorite dank weed. It’s a perfect combination and one that we can’t get enough of.
1) Russian River Pliny The Younger
Russian River
ABV: 10.25%
Average Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
In the pantheon of California IPAs, it’s pretty tough to beat Russian River Pliny The Younger. This highly coveted, hard-to-find triple IPA is widely known as one of the most balanced, well-made American craft beers of all time. Drinkers love it for its hoppy aromas and flavors and citrus zest.
Tasting Notes:
This beer is like the textbook definition of a classic IPA. The nose is a perfect balance of resinous pine, freshly cut grass, and citrus. The palate has all of those flavors but expands on them with the addition of sweet caramel malt, tropical fruits, and candied orange peel. It all ends with a dry, resinous, dank, floral, hoppy, lightly sweet, and lightly bitter finish that leaves you wanting more.
Bottom Line:
Good luck finding a better, more balanced California IPA than Russian River Pliny The Younger. Well… also good luck finding Pliny The Younger.
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This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
