Mother Earth Brew Co - Primordial Imperial IPA

Finally, it's Friday! Time to forget about the week, forget about work, forget about all the bullshit that goes on... it's time to unwind.

I wasn't going to do a review tonight but I said 'fuck it' and here we are. Tonight for Tastes Like Beer we're drinking another IPA from my friends at Mother Earth Brew Co. This is their super limited (7 kegs for the tap house, maybe a couple others for local bars, and bottles) Imperial IPA, this is Primordial.

Admittedly in the past, I wasn't a fan of this beer. I thought it was a little too unbalanced for my liking. Not enough going on. Just sort of a hop bomb. It wasn't terrible by any means, but it just lacked a bit of... something to really make it stand out.

This was until a couple of weeks ago when I got to try this on tap. HOLY SHIT. Best batch of Primordial to date. I've been drinking at MEBC for a couple of years now and this is by far the best batch of Primordial they've put out. So how does this really hold up in the bottle?

Primordial pours out an absolutely beautiful dark gold/dark orange color. There's a fluffy 2 fingers of white head that doesn't stick around too long, and leaves a really awesome sticky lacing on the glass. It's pretty clear, maybe just slightly hazy but that could just be my shitty lighting at my desk.

The nose on Primordial is absolutely wonderful. Big orange and papaya. Lots of grapefruit coming through too. There's a really nice sweetness that comes along almost a sticky sweetness. There's a very slight earthy hint as well, I'm guessing from the hops. But really, just a lot of citrus goodness. This really smells great.

Time to shut up and drink. Primordial's taste follows the nose. Hello Oranges! Big fresh orange coming through, or is it Tangerine? Hmmmm... reminds me a bit more of an Orange. Really fresh and sweet. There's some ripe papaya coming through maybe even a nice mango character as well. Not getting much other citrus than the Oranges but that's cool with me. Middle of the mouth you get a really gentle hop bitterness. It sort of tap dances on the tongue just to keep you honest. There's more of a sugary sweetness there in the middle of the mouth as well. Maybe some peach coming through? Back of the mouth there's a little bit of hop bitterness, some more orange, and that nice sugary... biscuit type of character. Reminds me a lot of a fresh orange scone actually.

Overall, Primordial is fucking awesome. Plain and simple. This is a fantastic Imperial IPA. It's not a hop explosion like a lot of Imperial IPA's out in the market. It's well balanced and really nice. Primordial comes in at 9% so it's not huge like some Imperial IPA's but it's definitely not going to let you off easy. You don't taste the 9% but I think after a couple this beer would come up and kick you in the teeth. This beer is super limited and brewed maybe twice a year if we're lucky. MEBC has a great lineup of IPA's and this might be my new favorite (Auld Knucker being my personal favorite for those who have been to MEBC.)

Rating: A

Wife absolutely hated this beer. Maybe hated it more than any other beer I've had her try. Oh well. More for  me!

Sorry for the poor photos/lack of photos. Having major lighting issues with the photo box.