Deschutes Conflux No. 2

Deschutes Conflux No. 2Back in July I posted about the side-by-side tasting of the Deschutes Brewery and Boulevard Brewing collaboration beer, Conflux No. 2. Since then I’ve had the chance to pick up Deschutes’ version of the collaboration a couple more times in the bottle (I haven’t seen Boulevard’s bottled version here, and I don’t know if it will make out out here or not), and have more detailed notes for the beer.

The spoiler version is that this is a really great beer, and the more I drink it the more I like it. It’s 7.3% alcohol by volume and is a “White IPA”: essentially a hybrid of a Belgian-style Witbier with an American-style India Pale Ale—brewed with wheat and a substantial amount of hops. This is also brewed with white sage to help marry the flavor of the hops with the wheat.

Appearance: Pale yellow with a generous fluffy egg white head; holding it up to the light reveals floaties. [Don’t let my picture fool you entirely, the beer really isn’t that clear; as I poured further, the yeasty cloudiness typical of a Witbier did get stirred up.]

Smell: Luscious mix of hops, sage, and a touch of Belgian Wit character; hops are more prevalent and blend with the spicy sage well. That spiciness is the signature here, I think, a touch peppery and unique.

Taste: Mellow and creamy with lovely Wit character all over a bed of spicy hops (and presumably the sage)—though it’s not the standard lupulin Kung Fu kick of northwest hoppiness. Super refreshing, and as I write this I just got a really nice sage flavor.

Mouthfeel: Light, spicy, refreshing, creamy.

Overall: Fantastic beer, I really really like this beer. Super drinkable, refreshing, different, spicy, “zippy” and fun to drink.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of A-. On RateBeer, it scores 3.65 out of 5 and is in their 97th percentile.

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