Review: Lagunitas Sucks (2020) and Born Yesterday Pale Ale 2020
Lagunitas’s late 2020 seasonal beers are here, and we drank them.
Lagunitas Sucks (2020) – An old seasonal reissued in honor of 2020, this dry-hopped double IPA is made with four types of cereal grains — barley, oats, wheat, and rye. It’s creamy and immersive, punchy with bitterness but never overdone. Instead it lets the alcohol do more of the talking, layering the resinous, almost caramel-like body with notes of orange peel, sesame oil, and a floral orange blossom note. Really well done. Doesn’t suck at all. (The name of the beer was coined after Lagunitas ran out of an old favorite at the time; in 2020 it takes on new significance.) 8% abv. A- / $12 per six-pack
Lagunitas Born Yesterday Pale Ale 2020 – This year’s Born Yesterday is brewed with (tons of) Simcoe, Citra, Mosaic, and Sabro hops. The 2020 rendition is drinking on the hoary side, with lots of earth and forest floor notes dominating from start to finish. Elements of citrus peel have difficulty peeking through, but they’re in there somewhere, showing a glimmer of presence midway to the lengthy finish, which inevitably takes us deeply back into the woods. It’s fine (for a 7.2% whopper, of course), but just not as delightful as it’s been in prior vintages. 7.2% abv. B+ / $12 per six-pack
Lagunitas Born Yesterday Pale Ale 2020
0.00
