Wylam's Sticky Bud is back for revenge after being put out of production, and as far as revenge goes, this is truly delicious retribution.
A DIPA that focuses on the more herbal properties of beer, Revenge of the Sticky Bud combines Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe hops to create a tropical fruit sensation on the tongue, along with a huge dollop of dankness.
The original Sticky Bud had the same hop combination but focused more on the fruity elements rather than the dank, resinous flavour that the Revenge does.
Big hops in the aroma with a punchy, fruity smell oozing out of the can. The pour is quite dark, releasing more fruity and resinous aromas that is almost woody-like.
The texture of the beer is quite dense, with a grassy, earthy flavour that really hammers home how dank the beer is. It's odd for a DIPA to be this high on the dank scale and the fruity, tropical flavours don't really come through until the back end of the profile.
Despite this, the resin, woody flavour is prominent all the way through the beer which doesn't leave much room for the lighter, fruity notes to really make an impact. The aftertaste brings a little more sweetness to the party, but it's not the juice-bomb I would expect it to be.
The can is a psychedelic view of the inside of a bush, with two eyes peering out of either side of the beer name label on the front. Other, smaller eyes dot the can but they could also be the sticky buds themselves.
The shades of black and green are a very effective can design and are intriguing to look at, with Wylam's standard black box with the beer name written sideways not really distracting from the can design.
The back of the can is choc-full of information about the beer ingredients, brewery, and beer properties. It's quite informative without taking anything away from the interesting can design.
Wylam's beer are readily available in several places online, but this particular instance we can only find in stock at Red Elephant Beer Cellar.
We got this can from our local beer shop Beer Central though, so it's well worth sorting through your local bottle shop to try and find one.
