Belt's Beer Garden: One and done...

Well...I was a slacker this week and only found time to get you one new beer review...however, I was lucky enough to find a rare (for my parts) collaboration: Amager Bryghus and Cigar City's Orange Crush.

Like I said, I never see anything from these two breweries up here in Illinois so when I stumbled upon Orange Crush - a session IPA made with orange peels - from Amager and Cigar City I immediately snatched it up.

Never having heard of Amager Bryghus, I tried to do some research on them. All I found out is they call Kastrup, Denmark home. The suburb of Copenhagen has housed Amager since they opened back in 2007 but I don't know much more about them because their website is only in Danish at the moment, so sorry.

I do know that Cigar City is from Tampa, Florida and they too have been making since 2007. You can find them throughout Florida and in parts of Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. They wrote to Amager  wanting to make a collaboration...and this is the result.

Orange Crush pours a hazy, pretty dark burnt orange color with just over a finger of dense white head topping the beer. There is quite a bit of sediment/orange peel that floats freely in my glass (which you can sort of see in the photo above).

The aroma is almost all oranges and tangerines...but, with the name Orange Crush, what else was it going to smell like? There is a hint of grapefruit hiding behind all the oranges and a slight hop note in the background as well.

My first sip almost all citrus. The orange hits your tongue straight away and continues throughout the entire drink. Towards the backend of the beer, however, the orange fades a bit and there are some caramel and bready malts that kind of cut down on the citrus, making the beer not as sweet as it otherwise would be (which was a good thing in my opinion).

At the end of each taste, there is an oily pine flavor from the hops that stays with you until you drink again. And, even though it only has around 32 IBU, the hops do leave a slight bitterness at the end as well. But it's nothing the orange juice from your next sip won't cure!

I will say that it's pretty heavy for a session IPA. Yes, it does have a pretty light body to it, which is a nice contrast to the thick, solid foam that tops the beer. And, at only 5% ABV, it won't knock you on your ass...but there is something that sits heavy for me. Not that it deters from the beer at all!

The 500 mL (16.9 ounce) bottle doesn't come cheap, however, costing a cool $10.99. But Cigar City and Amager are two rare commodities in Illinois, so paying a premium is expected.

Normally in Illinois, "Orange Crush" refers to the University of Illinois student section...but they've got nothing on this beer. This beer looks better, acts nicer, and shows up to more events than they do. It also B1G on flavor too...

All in-state rivalries aside, this is a really tasty citrus brew. The oranges aren't overpowering since the malts cut into them nicely and the hops add a nice bittering effect on the backend. It isn't as light as its session name would suggest but this is a nice collaboration from two breweries I never get to sample. 8/10