"New" Brew Thursday: 'Max Headroom' (2020) from Trillium

 Happy *belated*Headroom Day everyone! This year, Headroom Day was this past Saturday. For the uninitiated, Headroom Day is Trillium’s annual release of ‘Headroom,’ which is an insanely hopped double IPA that evolves each year as Trillium tries to push the boundaries and create something special. Typically, we get about a day or two of advanced notice of this beautiful occasion, however those sneaks over at Trillium pulled a fast one announcing it at 12:01am the day of on social media. Waking up on Saturday morning with that announcement was just like waking up on Christmas Morning as a child, but even better since it was completely out of the blue. What made this even better was the return of ‘Max Headroom.’ First introduced last year ‘Max Headroom’ is an even more amped up version of ‘Headroom’ that pushes those boundaries even further. Typically, Headroom Day involves getting to Trillium a couple hours before opening to ensure your can purchase. However, due to COVID-19 and online ordering I just purchased the beer online and drove up to the brewery to pick it up. It does take the fun out of Headroom Day as making friends in the can line is a rite of passage, but I will take a five-minute wait for cans on Headroom Day eleven times out of ten.

‘Max Headroom’ pours a hazy and almost florescent yellow into the glass with a bright white head. It has strong notes of fresh pineapple and citrus with subtle tropical notes. The duality of ‘Max Headroom’ is that its appearance is very much attributed to the Galaxy hops while its aromas are more attributed to the Mosaic. Both working together where the drinker looks at the beer, smells it, and then looks at it again in almost disbelief. It has a rich tropical and citrus flavor with a thick and luxurious mouthfeel that coats the entire palate and a slight lingering bitterness with all the hops working together in perfect harmony. With an ABV of 9.1% it is not overly boozy and just a phenomenal beer.  I hope this means that ‘Max Headroom’ will be a permanent fixture for next year and many years to come.