Prairie has recently released a spate of new beers in cans, including Prison Rodeo, an IPA brewed with Idaho 7, Mosaic, Summit and Simcoe hops and Spaceship Earth coffee. Some was made available to local bars on draft, so I had a taste at Tapwerks.

Company: Prairie Artisan Ales

Location: Krebs, OK

ABV: 9.5% ABV

Style/Description: India Pale Ale brewed with Spaceship Earth Coffee

Price: $7 for a 16 oz pour

Appearance: Cloudy orange copper pour, light head and moderate lace.

Nose: Sweet citrus and caramel butter aroma.

Taste: Strangely caramel maltiness interferes with the bitter hops. Resins and cedar bitterness, but with an aggressive medicinal metallic taste.  It has a bitter coppery aspirin taste, as well as pithy bitter grapefruit peel and a touch of acidic lemon. I’m not getting any coffee out of this at all, unless it comes through as the buttery malt notes?

Finish: Finishes sticky on the throat with a burning acid tartness. Reminds me of squirting too much allergy spray in my nose and running down the back of my throat.

Overall: I’m not sure what’s going on with this beer. It isn’t old as it was just tapped last week…the acidity and metal is aggressive and distracts from some of the more interesting and pleasant flavors, really leaving little to be enjoyed in this beer. I’ll pick up a can to make sure this isn’t a problem with the keg, as we really are used to better beer than this from Prairie.

Rating: 1.5/5