Elysian's Phaze Dust is a proper new beer. Lemon Daydream, not quite.

USA Today

2 days ago

First, let me say I love a good stovepipe can. At 19.2 ounces, they go above the pounder but not quite to the "I promise I'm not drinking Steel Reserve" of the 24 ounce king cans in the world. I also love pretty much whatever Elysian has cooking; the Seattle-based brewer has been a circle of trust beer-maker since I first tried Space Dust a decade ago.
Fortunately for me, Elysian has leaned into the trend of increasing one-off gas station sales and joined the rolling snowball kicked downhill by New Belgium's big, boozy and reasonably-priced-per-volume beers. Phaze Dust is the latest extension of the Space Dust line, joining Juice and Dank among the ranks. It comes in typical cans, which is great for the folks who don't want to drink a little more than half a liter at a time. But it also comes in those nice tall tipplers, which is great for folks like me who love beer but also the minor twinge of pomp and circumstance that comes with drinking from a big can.
Big can, you guys.
Let's dig in and see if Phaze Dust lives up to the Elysian standard. And, since we're here, let's talk about one of Elysian's other summer offerings. Lemon Daydream is a lemon blonde aimed toward cutting through the heat with a more crushable profile. We'll hit it with the Phaze Dust and see what's what.
Phaze Dust Imperial Hazy IPA: A-
It pours, as expected, with a lion of a head that roars up and slowly dissipates over about two minutes from the moment it leaves the can. For an imperial hazy, the smell is fairly tame. You've got the expected hops, but nothing that would burn your lips. You've got a little fruit, but nothing that would push this towards a juice. All in all, it's quiet but pleasant.
The first sip is crisp and leans into the tart hoppiness Elysian has weaved through its best beers. The hops are clean and a little bitter, making it the first thing you realize each time you put it up to your lips. Riding shotgun is the citrus you'd expect from a hazy. It's a little orange, a little lemon and injects the sour, dry end that helps snap each sip off.
That gives it the bold flavor you'd expect from a pale ale, but it's not as brash as you might expect from an imperial ale that clocks in at 8.2 percent alcohol by volume (ABV). It's not a crushable tailgate beer, but it's not something you need to sit with while recalibrating your palate every five minutes. It also gets a bit fruitier and sweeter as it warms, which helps add to that drinkability.
Those powers combine to make a lighter IPA than the company's flagship Space Dust, albeit with just as much booze and milder flavor. Phaze Dust isn't as explosive as Full Contact -- my favorite Elysian beer -- but it's a remarkably easy to drink beer despite its boozy payload. I don't know if I'd rank it above Space Dust, but I'd give it the edge over Juice Dust and give it a full grade over the too-weedy Dank Dust.
Lemon Daydream Lemon Blonde Ale: C
This one doesn't come in the 19.2-ounce stovepipe, but I guess I can drink a traditional 12-ounce can. I guess. This pours a rich daffodil color with a quickly fading head that gives way to a very still beverage with very little carbonation moving skyward.
That's not especially summer-y, but the sting of sour lemon wafting off the top picks up the pace. Except it's not lemonade lemon, since there's no trace of sweetness inside. It's wheat and citrus all the way down.
That applies to the first sip. The lemon brings sourness, but it's not balanced. There's nothing pushing back against it or forcing it to be anything other than lemon aside from a tiny amount of fructose sugar toward the end. It's tart and that's about it. Underneath that you get a nice enough blonde ale -- wheat, light malt -- but this is yellow fruit in big neon lights.
It's fine when the beer is cold and light enough to be crushable on a hot day. But the lemon is blunt and overpowering. It's a twist on your summer shandy, and that's nice. But it's not for me.
Would I drink it instead of a Hamm's?
This a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I'm drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That's the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm's. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink Elysian's Phaze Dust over a cold can of Hamm's?
The Phaze Dust is a yes, though there are obviously limits there thanks to the high ABV. The Lemon Daydream is a no, with the exception of a potential change-of-pace beer on a hot day.
This is part of FTW's Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.