This cleverly named beer is a collaboration between Shorts Brewing and The Drafting Table. Hence the clever name, the Short table. These two breweries are great in their own so I was excited to see what magical concoction they brewed together.
The Short Table is a Brut IPA. This type of IPA is definitely an acquired taste. They are bone-dry champagne like IPAs.
This beer is definitely that. It’s a perfect example of the style is look, smell, taste and mouthfeel. These beers are clear with nice defined foamy head. There’s a ton of bubbles that steam out of the beer as it’s poured.
The aroma is sharp with a super clean pine, citrus and subtle sweetness. I’m a fan of that defined hop bitterness and pine resin that hops gives off. It’s a beautiful thing to pack this much hops aroma into a beer.
The taste definitely lets you know it’s a Brut. There’s flora hops, mouth Pickering citrus and a cottonmouth inducing dryness that permeates the flavor profile. This is not a beer for everyone. I’d say you have to be a true hop head or a fan of bitter flavors because it’s pretty relentless. I can hang, but even I was struggling to finish the entire Crowler.
The mouthfeel is light, bubble and champagne like. There’s a lot of carbonation that plays into this champagne profile.
My overall impression of the collaboration is pretty positive. The beer is good, but the style is pretty tough to like. I enjoyed it for what it was and can appreciate the work that went into brewing this. However, I’m not going to recommend this for most causal beer drinkers.
