Peace Tree Hop Wrangler 3

The Peace Tree Brewing Company is in Knoxville, Iowa.  This 6.25% ABV beer includes six hop additions, and has American, English and Belgian malts, and Belgian yeast.

The beer pours a glowing dark copper and orange in color.  There is a short head of off-white foam.  The aroma is fruity and yeasty, oranges, bananas and spice.  The taste follows the aroma with lots of orange and fruity yeast, adds some rye-like and caramel malt notes, and then turns massively bitter and dry.  This is very well done and should be appreciated by those who like Belgian-style IPA's.

Icehouse Edge

This is a 8.0% ABV beer brought to you by Icehouse, which is from the Plank Road Brewery (which means Miller brewing) (which means MolsonCoors) (which means huge).  I don't get this release, did they think they were losing too much market share to Natty Daddy?  Expectations are low, but I'll give it a fair shake.

The beer pours a dark yellow in color with an inch of white head that rapidly dissipates. The aroma is mostly sweet, cheap candy (think candy corn or circus peanuts) overcooked corn, but a bit of toasted malt that is actually pleasant. The taste generally follows the aromas and is generally over sweet with some plastic chemical tones.  It is so sweet that it finishes dry, but not in a refreshing hops dryness. The mouthfeel is sweetly thick, syrupy and burning.  On a positive note, at least there is no metallic green apple nastiness going on.  Sorry Icehouse, I think Natty Daddy might have the "Edge" on you (not that either is really worth drinking).

2017: So the can hasn't changed at all, rare for these big brewer low end beers that often change up their labels seeking rebranding. There is still that note of toasted malt in here, in fact more prevalent now. The beer is still sweet, but not sickly sweet or cloying anymore. It still has that dry finish that is quite strange for its sweet body, but general lack of hops. The off chemical notes are gone and it doesn't burn as bad. I'm not saying this is actually very good, but they have definitely improved it, and I would say it now has the "Edge" over Natty Daddy.