Snowed In With Shorts Review: Short’s The Liberator

In Beer Reviews by The Guys

Didn’t we just do a whole week of Shorts Brewing reviews a few months ago? You bet we did! Is that too much? That’s not for us to judge – all we know is that Karl was holed up in Traverse City, Michigan under about 31 inches of snow and he burrowed his way to the corner store for a pick-your-six survival pack. These are his Donner Party style dispatches from the Great White North, with less cannibalism and more beer drinking.

Short’s says:

“This beer is a burley double IPA with enormous amounts of hops which helps to support the healthy malt profile.  A piney, citrusy intensity of hop protrudes through the caramelized malt profile and is finished with a punch of fresh citrus compliments of fresh lemon and orange zest added after fermentation.”

Short's The Liberator

Short’s The Liberator
Double IPA, 7.4% ABV

We first posted this look at the Liberator on in early April, very early in the GDB run of beer-review excellence that you’ve come to know and love. Karl stumbled into a lonely bottle of Liberator during his burrow-run to the corner store and updated this post, with his winter-clad comments at the top:

Karl: As Double IPAs go, my benchmark is always going to be the Double Crooked Tree from Dark Horse.  With a knock-you-off-your-barstool flavor profile, I don’t know if I can accept anything less asskicking as a DIPA, though I am more than happy to keep looking.  For example, we’ve heaped praise on the Founders Devil Dancer which is also thoroughly asskicking, even after a year in the cellar.

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So a DIPA from Shorts came pretty highly anticipated, especially since it promised crazy citrus with lemon and orange zest.  Sitting beneath 3 feet of snow, I was looking forward to flavors of fruit orchards to herald my brain to warmer climates.  They were there, but the tropical attitude was covered with square miles of pinetrees.

Like the Guys below, I found the Liberator to have a copper color on the pour, minimal head to this beer and hops, hops, hops, piney sharp hops.  After some further searching, I had a hard time tracking down any further citrus, sweetness, lemony tartness or the like.  I might be doing something wrong with this beer, but I was a little disappointed by my perception of it as fairly one-note.

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This is a fine DIPA, and perhaps I’ve had my ass kicked too hard by other doubled-up brews, but it was neither overwhelming nor packing that fruity heat I was hoping for.  I’d love to try it again to see if maybe there was a freshness issue, though.  It’s a good beer, which I hope isn’t damning it with faint praise.

Ryan:  Before you even pour this beer, which is a lovely amber in color, you catch a whiff of hops as soon as you pry the cap off.  Stick your proboscis in and it’s like someone shoved fresh hops up your nose.  WOW.

The taste does not disappoint.  You get a bit of citrus, most likely from the orange & lemon zest, at the start.  But then the hops come barreling into your tastebuds like an 18 wheeler screaming, “Get the hell outta my way!”  Piney hops then flood the palate and it lingers.  Boy does it linger.  Practically setting up camp on the back of your tongue.

This is a fun double IPA and a wonderful representation of the style.  Hats off to Short’s for putting together a spectacularly hoppy beer.

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Andrew: We tasted so many beers the night we had The Liberator that I had to go back to double check my notes and found, “HOPS…HOPS…HOPS.”

The beer poured a copper/burnt-orange color with very little head and immediately the room filled with a piney hops smell, with notes of citrus. Upon tasting the beer, I noted that it started off somewhat sweet (hence the citrus notes) and then the hops gradually kicked in leaving you with a very piney, hoppy aftertaste.

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Written by many, compiled by one, this is a collaborative post with contributions from at least two writers at Guys Drinking Beer.

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