DARK SKY BREWING CO. S.E.T.I. #1 EXPERIMENTAL HAZY IPA - a review

by Daver?

What happens when you take my favorite local craft brewary, discover they have a new hazy IPA, and that it was canned and shipped to a store a mile away? Damn right that I'll put a four pack in my beer fridge!

I'm not the most well-educated on the various strains of hops, so when the label exclaims that S.E.T.I. #1 is dryhopped with El Dorado and HBC431 hops, I have to judge whether those are good ingredients the old fashioned way. Once again, I'm tasting this with my Yazoo Brewing pint glass. It's really good as an all-purpose pint glass for getting the most out of the drink experience.

To the nose, there is a rich zesty grapefruit aroma that masks a bitter hoppiness. The body is an opaque, dark yellow. It's not a appetizing color, but you can't get freaked out by the way it looks. Don't judge a book by its cover, it's got so much you should see by the light of day, but by night it's one beer you can savor...  forgive the ersatz cult movie appropriation, some things can't be helped without stronger meds, but I digress. If poured slowly, the head is quick to dissipate, but the foam clings in a ring along the edges of the glass and leaves lacy patterns as it slides down. In fact, as you drink and the level lowers, the foam looks almost like Sanskrit, but that might be the ABV talking. At 7% ABV, a pint of S.E.T.I. #1 must be drank responsibly. But anyway, if you pour it quickly, the head is a little thicker, and it holds together much longer like a paper seal to pull off of the brew, and the foam clinging to the glass is like a shower curtain instead of lace. To the tongue, there's a highly refreshing surge of citrus essence, like pink grapefruit and blood orange notes, with a biting sweetness lying low. Unlike most other IPAs, with its 30 IBU, there's little hops bitterness at the end. No, S.E.T.I. #1 has a shockingly clean finish with a slightly sweet aftertaste.

I'll be upfront here, I think Dark Sky's experiment was a resounding success. I hope this hazy stays in their regular rotation, because it's a relaxing, refreshing summertime brew that I could drink all year round. For now, I hope it's still in production for a little longer because I've already finished my four pack for this review.