Ah, the good old days. Before beer! Not that the days after I discovered beer were anything but good, too, but we all love to reminisce on our childhoods after all, don’t we? I still remember those hot summer days in Rhode Island chasing down the ice cream through the streets of the neighborhood. One of my favorite treats was the legendary Orange Creamsicle, that wonderful fusion of ice cream and popsicle that was really and truly the best of both worlds on a stick.

Today, my treats are more likely to come from a bottle than a wrapper. Thanks to the Terrapin Brewing Company of Athens, Georgia in collaboration with California’s Green Flash Brewing Company, I can enjoy a beer and feel like a kid at the same time. That is, when I pop open a bottle of Terrapin/Green Flash Tangerine Dreamsicle.

Terrapin/Green Flash Tangerine Dreamsicle I a collaboration brew produced by Terrapin at their Athens brewery. It was a summer. 2014 release and on can only hope that it will be a beer they brew again. I bought a bottle and kept it stashed in the back of DBR Zweite until February of 2015.

Terrapin says of this beer on the label:

East meets west with the coolest collaboration brew in recent history. Terrapin and Green Flash have teamed up to make a Tangerine Cream IPA that will tickle your inner child while it satisfies one of life’s guiltiest pleasures.

Ingredients from the website:

Hops: Citra, Amarillo, Azacca (dry hop)

Malts:2-Row Pale, CaraMalt, Gambrinus Honey Malt

Other: Lactose Sugar, Tangerine Peel

Terrapin/Green Flash Tangerine Dreamsicle has an alcohol content of 6.5% by volume and 80 IBUs. I paid $7.99 for a bottle at Total Wine last year.

Terrapin/Green Flash Tangerine Dreamsicle pours to a bright orange color with a thick rocky head of foam and a very citric-orange, grassy herbal nose. Taking a sip, I get some chewy caramel malt up front, just enough to support the hops really, and then a big blast of very citric, orange juicy hops and bitter astringent tangerine peels. A bit of creaminess from the sugars come out in the finish and adds to the creamsicle impression, albeit a very bitter one. Some grassy herbal hops and a long dry bitterness round things out nicely.

I have to say, this works very nicely indeed, and I am really enjoying it. It’s extremely refreshing from the citrus and bitter hops aspects, and it’s a beer I’d love to see Terrapin produce again. We all love to embrace our inner kid, after all.

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