For several years, I was fairly indifferent about beers from Captain Lawrence Brewing Company. While I have always been open to trying their offerings, I had yet to find one that merited a repeat purchase outside of their Frost Monster Imperial Stout. I just felt that their beer was good enough to not disappoint if you purchased it but not good enough to make you want to buy the same beer again with so many other options available.
The moment my opinion on Captain Lawrence changed came by accident. I sent my wife a screen grab of a Facebook post and asked her if she could pick up the beer in the photo. The problem was, there were actually two different beers in the photo. I was not quick enough with my reply on which specific beer I wanted, so she bought both(she’s awesome). The Captain Lawrence beer she purchased was the Citra Dry Hopped version of Orbital IPA. Later that night, I gave it a try and loved it. It was finally a beer from Captain Lawrence not named Frost Monster that I wanted to purchase again. When they released the Mosiac Dry Hopped version of Orbital Tilt, I found what I thought to be one of the best session IPAs on the market. The tropical fruitiness of the mosaic hops harmoniously blended with the pilsner malt backbone and created a beer I found it impossible to have just one of.
With the success of both versions of Orbital Tilt, I began to branch out and start trying more of their hoppy offerings. I fell in love with Tears of Green & the Powder Dreams series. Each of them came with a higher price tag but delivered a fabulous drinking experience. Their latest Orbital Tilt(Galaxy Dry Hopped) may have been the weakest in the series but it was still fantastic. With all this good will towards Captain Lawrence, I found myself rushing to try their latest hoppy offering, Galactic Fog IPA.
Double Dry Hopped with Galaxy Hops, Galactic Fog is a New England Style Double IPA with 8.5% ABV. The fruitiness of the Galaxy Hops is front and center here. The aromas of passion fruit, pineapple, peach, tangerine, and lime jump out of the glass. The first sip was very much like the nose, loads of fruit up front. Much like the Mosaic Dry Hopped Orbital Tilt IPA I mentioned earlier, the fruitiness of the galaxy hops here pair nicely with the malt backbone, which is light but adds a nice bit of pilsner-like breadiness. After the bold hit of fruit, a subtle cool mintiness comes in before a spicy, herbal finish.
There is a lot to like here but one thing that I found myself not enjoying was the syrupy sweetness that began to get to me at the halfway mark. It by no means ruined the experience of drinking Galactic Fog for me but one can feels like more than enough. That is the difference here between the
Tears of Green, Powder Dreams & Orbital Tilt(Did I tell you I love Orbital Tilt?) series. For those beers I would have wanted to go back to the refrigerator for another can. Then again, perhaps it is a good thing it is one and done for Galactic Fog. Either way, this beer is another winner for the Elmsford, NY brewery. Trust me when I tell you, do not sleep on Captain Lawrence, they are making some fantastic hoppy beers. Their sours are really solid too, but I will save my thoughts on those for another blog.
Overall rating: 4/5
Rating Scale:
1. Repugnant and undrinkable
2. Acceptable but forgettable
3. Good, worth a purchase
4. Excellent, a step above the norm
5. Truly Exceptional. Drop everything, BUY IT NOW!
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Thanks for reading. Sláinte!
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