Cabbage Gaze is a beer creation from Atelier Vrais that draws everyone’s attention with its disturbing label design. An apple-green eye looks out at us from the can in a forest green cover. That wouldn’t be unusual in itself, but the wide-open eye is in the center of a savoy cabbage. The outer cabbage leaves enclose the eyeball like a rose made of thick, green, veiny eyelids - so eerily fitting that it’s only on second glance that you realize something isn’t quite right.
Behind the winter vegetables peering attentively from the can is a fantastic West Coast IPA called Cabbage Gaze, brewed with two types of malt and cold hopped with three different types of hops. The Cascade, Motueka and Riwaka varieties give the brew juicy fruit notes, hints of spicy resin and tangy citrus tones as well as a strong bitterness.
Cabbage Gaze presents itself in a densely clouded corn gold in the glass and has a stately crown of slightly tinted foam on the shimmering orange body. The nose perceives an intense cloud of pine resin, citrus and tropical fruit notes, the palate follows closely and is flooded with a similar potpourri. Following the classic aroma of a West Coast IPA, the taste profile is made up of orange, lemon, pine resin and all kinds of juicy tropical fruits. Delicious!
Blech.BrutWater, barley malt , wheat malt , hops, yeast
