Review: Three Heads Tiny Kind session IPA
Review: Three Heads Tiny Kind session IPA
Latest member of the Kind family aims to fill a sessionable niche
Launching this week in stores around the region, Three Heads Brewing’s latest release stands as one of its biggest gambles and one of its most important releases ever.
The brewery, one of the region’s largest, is aiming to compete in the all-important session beer category. The Neighborhood of the Arts brewery wants to find another successful flagship after excelling for years with The Kind IPA, a beer it rightfully markets as “Rochester’s IPA.”
If the brewery finds a market with its Tiny Kind session IPA, it could compete with other sessions like Founders Brewing’s iconic All Day IPA and provide a jolt.
(Unrelated aside: I long advocated to call this beer “Kinda,” but I’ll admit Tiny Kind is a great name, especially when considered with the “T” theme of the other beers in the series like Too Kind and Tres Kind.)
REVIEW (I’m thinking about channeling my old Beer Advocate reviewing days here): Tiny Kind pours a slightly hazy golden hue with ample foamy white head. The nose provides notes of pine, pithy grapefruit, and sweet underlying malt character.
The taste pretty much follows the nose and truly does drink like a scaled down version of its big brother, The Kind. I really like how the beer doesn’t drink watery or finish empty like many session beers do. There is a pleasant amount of lingering, clean bitterness. But where it diverges from The Kind is that it doesn’t have quite the same sticky or dank quality you get from the 3HB flagship.
Overall, this is a just a great, great session beer. It provides so much of what people seek in the category and represents a quality, economical option. Kudos to 3HB brewers Derek Armstrong and Casey Kindlon for really knocking it of out of the park with this one.
I’m rooting for the 3HB crew with this one. At roughly $20 per 12-pack, Tiny Kind is delicious and a great way to spread the craft beer gospel.
