Beer Review: Fuzzy Nudge (Troegs Independent Brewing)
Don’t adjust your set, this isn’t an orange juice blog, where I review the latest pulpy craft artisanal handmade orange juice…. nope…. this is still The Beer Thrillers and this is still beer reviews.
This is a fun one-off from Troegs and named by a friend of the blog – Ffej Herb. Ffej recently had his Ffej of July (an amazing party) and when not rocking out or traveling from brewery to brewery or running his own blog (The Pour Travelers) he works at Troegs, and despite working for them nearly from the beginning back at the Paxton Street building, this is the first he’s gotten to name.
This is just one of those words and phrases and names that Ffej has always liked and has been throwing at the Trogner brothers since day one to try and get used as a beer name, and they finally acquiesced to him. And they picked one heck of a beer to do it with!
In honor of Ffej, and his Ffej of July, lets break down this delicious brewski:
Beer: Fuzzy Nudge
Brewery: Troegs Independent Brewing
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 9%
IBU: (None Listed)
Untappd Write-Up: Just what the heck is a Fuzzy Nudge? We didn’t know either when someone here tossed it out as a beer name. Then along comes this Double IPA out of our Scratch Series. An oat-dominated malt bill gives it a super-soft mouthfeel, and it’s loaded with 25 pounds per barrel of fuzzy peaches and apricots. A hop combo of Lotus, El Dorado and Azacca complements the stone fruit with notes of orange rind and pear, and a new-to-us yeast pulls in flavors reminiscent of gummy peach rings. Finally, brown sugar balances the brightness of the fruit and nudges fermentation of this lovable double IPA to full fuzziness. Voila, Fuzzy Nudge! We taste: juicy peach, orange rind, brown sugar.
These are definitely carbonated, so no worries there on that one. (As my second picture shows you). And natural light or artificial light, it still looks like orange juice. It has a beautiful orange glowing complexion, and looks more on the “Hazy NE IPA” spectrum then on the “IPA” spectrum.
The aroma, as soon as you crack it is full of fruity IPA notes. It has a base “Troegs IPA” smell to it, but ontop of that, it has many fruity IPA notes. Ripe notes of peach, apricot, orange, all rolled up into one big hop ball and poof, explodes in your nose.
Taste is smooth as silk and goes down even smoother, belying its 9% ABV. Another Troegs IPA hall-mark it seems, ~9% ABV = dangerous grounds with Troegs, because you won’t feel it until number 2 or 3. This has a lot of peach and apricot up front and then mellows out with the malt and hop notes, going from fruity to a bit of bitterness and kind of coalescing with a bit of a sweet brown sugary taste at the end. Making this a very nice, well rounded beer. Playing over the whole spectrum of your tastebuds.
My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.96 (as of 8.29.19)
Thanks for reading, and hoped you like this! Ffej of July was a blast and was great to hang out with a lot of the Troegs crew, and this is just one of many reasons why Troegs has been making some fantastic beers. People they have working for them love beer, care about beer, and care about the people drinking their beer, and you can tell.
As always, thanks for reading everyone. Cheers!
-B. Kline
