Before I get on to talking about this beer I need to qualify everything that I’m about to say.
Firstly @BarlFire is a Tweeter and home brewer, friend and CAMRGB member.
Secondly I LOVE The 13th Floor Elevators.
For those who don’t know, they were a band from Austin, Texas who made some remarkable psychedelic garage punk LPs in the mid to late 1960’s.
Why am I telling you this?
Because the label for this delicious beer is based on the cover of the 1966 classic “The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators”.
So I might be a bit biased.
The truth is though that I don’t really need any bias to say that this is even better than @BarlFire’s Simcoe based beer that I reviewed a few weeks ago.
Pouring a super marmalade with a very nice head and lots of lovely bubbles, the smell is woody pencil shavings, lemongrass and penny sweets.
The flavour here is mightily dry and cuttingly sharp.
This is a good thing.
You get a really decent fudgey toffee base with a slight creamy texture, a dose of mixed peppercorns and some All Spice, and then a big glug of mandarin juice just before the hops begin their slow but sure invasion of your palate.
By turns dry and juicy rich, the hops treat you to a big woody resinous wash cut through with knife sharp grapefruit and lemon pith, juice, zest and peel.
The finish is so intense that your lips pucker like a drunk granny pulling on a Rothmans.
This is yet another example of just how good home brewing can be.

Thanks to @BarlFire for allowing  me to try his beer.