Brau Brothers Brewing - Hundred Yard Dash Fresh Hop Ale

Brau Brothers Brewing is a locally owned and operated brewery based in Lucan, MN.  This brewery produces only for the local/regional market, which extends as far south as Iowa and tickles a couple towns in North Dakota, sorry folks outside of the region you are SOL on this one.  The Brau Brothers brews small batches, and "develops beers that people in Minnesota like to drink".  I suppose that means they brew really F'ing good beer!  I don't have much experience with Brau Brothers brews, but tonight I'll be drinking their fresh hop brew, Hundred Yard Dash. 

The bottle is green and covered in hops, and on the label in bold is "A Ridiculously Fresh Hopped Ale".  Being a hop-head, these brau brothers definitely have my attention.  After opening the bottle, the aromas waft out like fumes.  It's an herbal, grassy, resin aroma that all combined almost remind me of bubblegum.  The beer pours a light amberish orange, very clear and clean.  Over a full finger of bright white head that resides slowly, but holds on at the end and never quite leaves. 

Wow, there are those cascades and centennials!  Very bitter up front, lots of resin, you can taste the freshness of the hops....it's a slightly oily bitterness.  I also taste some spicyness and grasses in there.  Towards the end I find some of those malts, but they are really just a side-show in this beer, and the 6.8% alcohol is really no where to be found!  This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your beer-drinking intentions....  The finish tastes dry, but feels kind of sticky in the back of my throat.

Overall Rating:  Good (3.25 out of 6.00) While I appreciate the big-time bitterness of those american hops up-front, this isn't my favorite fresh-hopped ale.  I just can't get past that sticky feeling I get on the last leg of each drink.  The best gauge of drinkability is whether you're tempted to open a 2nd, and I can safely say I don't have the temptation.   

*Side Note - In my opinion, Surly Wet is the heavenly nectar of wet hops and sets the bar unfairly high for everyone else.  I tend to be very critical of beers in this style because it's one of my favorite styles, and I tend to compare them to Surly Wet.  As of yet nothing has compared (or come close).