20 Jan Urban South B52 My Sprit Viking

Urban South B52 My Sprit Viking

B52 X Urban South Brewery

Conroe, TX
Hazy DIPA
ABV: 9.3%
IBUs: ?
Packaging: Draft, 4 pack 16 ounce cans, delivered by Hop Drop

TLDR: SPIRIT AIRLINES IS THE WALMART OF THE SKY. THEY SCREWED ME ONCE, THEY SCREWED JOSH ONCE, AND THEY SCREWED THE FIRST B52 X URBAN SOUTH COLLAB, SO NOW WE HAVE B52 MY SPIRIT VIKING. Skip down to the beer review if you’re not interested in my Spirit Airlines rant, or crack a beer, grab some popcorn, and enjoy.

It was May 5, 2017. My wife and I were headed to Cancun for the wedding of a good friend of mine a few days before. We were planning to be there with their family for several days. We also scheduled a few days to spend a few on our own, so we had plans, money, babysitters, and dog sitters set aside for a week. But just a week.

The trip was great overall, and my wife and I made some incredible memories as well as celebrated a beautiful beachside wedding, but every single moment that we spent on the way to and from the airport was filled with stress and anxiety, and it put a real damper on our trip.

Thanks Spirit.

Boarding the plane and taking off took faaar longer than expected, and if I wrote the whole story out for you, you’d miss your next flight too, so here’s the condensed version. I planned to design a website to share the atrocity that is Spirit Airlines with the world, but I got busy with this one, and we all know beer’s way more important, so here’s the original brainstorming:

15 Reasons I Hate Spirit Airlines

1. They don’t respect your time – flight boarded late because it took them nearly 45 min to “clean the plane”
2. They’re dishonest at times – plane wasn’t actually being cleaned. It was being switched, and we were waiting for them to re-calculate new weight because there were a different amount of seats/passengers/luggage on the new plane
3. They sell you seats that don’t exist – once we board, there’s a man looking for aisle 31, so he can take his seat. There are only 30 aisles on this plane. He’s asked to leave and does so without conflict.
4. Their planes are made of paper – smoking engine before departing (another hour delay)
5. They’re maybe a bit too honest at other times – *after smoke bellows from engine* we hear from the overhead speakers, “It’s ok, we have two of those.”
6. They’re ill-equipped – once in the air, “Here are the customs forms required for you to get into the country. Oh yeah. We don’t have enough for all of you.”
7. More of the same – “We only have three pens, so hopefully some of y’all have some and you can share with one another.” (3 is not an exaggeration)
8. They continue to not care about your time – we tried to check in for our return flight home the day before, and it said, “You need to contact a Spirit representative. Estimated Hold time 20 min.” Actual hold time 1 hour and 18 minutes.
9. They continue to not care about your time – the following morning, we get an email that our flight is cancelled. We called for answers. Estimated wait time is an hour. 2 hours and five minutes later…
10. They don’t care about your money once they have it – after waiting 2 hrs they offered us to take a flight two days later with no compensation for hotel, etc.
11. They’ll try to get over on you however they can – once we said that’s not gonna work, they offered us a $50 voucher
12. When I told them that’s unacceptable, and they had to cover the hotel, they said no
13. They think they’re better than you – when returning to Houston, (4 completely unrelated to this flight) Spirit employees didn’t want to wait in Customs lines, so they began skipping everyone. Luckily, an airport employee told them they were people just like the rest of us, and sent them to the back of the line before I and a few other disgruntled patrons took it into our own hands
14. Spirit Airlines messed up the folks from Urban South
15. Is this really not enough!?

Wait… They messed up the folks from Urban South? They were supposed to come and lend a hand to brew this beer, but thanks to good ‘ol Spirit, they were stuck in Louisiana.

Ok, so you may be wondering… when it comes to B52 My Spirit Viking, that explains the My Spirit part, but it doesn’t explain the Viking part…

Nope. Not one bit.

The Viking bit comes from the yeast these guys chose to ferment the beer with. It’s a cool Nordic yeast blend called Kviek. Apparently Kviek means yeast in Nordic, and that part of the world is well known for vikings. Don’t act like you knew that. We didn’t either.

Urban South is known for being one of New Orlean’s most sought after breweries with a good mix of traditional beer and the wildly creative shenanigans that B52’s always pulling, so we were really excited to get our hands on some Spirit Viking.

The label is bright yellow with black text that reads My Spirit Viking, but the word Spirit is set in Helvetica, just like Spirit’s logo. There are some odd-looking shapes along the side of the can that didn’t make sense until I got some cans in my hands. They’re meant to be the windows and doors of an airplane.

B52 My Spirit Viking poured a 5% Tint opaque yellow-ish orange, that seemed a shade darker colored than most from B52. There was a creamy white head that had little sustain, and it laced spottily down the glass like so many tiny windows on a plane.

Again, unlike so many from B52, the aroma didn’t take over the room like vikings, claiming my nostrils hostage. Instead, the tropical aromas ambushed me when I poked my nose into the glass for a whiff. Something estery, almost peppery, seems to come on the aroma, and I can’t help but think it has something to do with the Kviek yeast.

With each sip of B52 My Spirit Viking, I expected an onslaught of hops. B52 has been known to push beers out quickly, and with Kviek being very quickly-fermenting, I definitely expected a ton of super acidic hop-burn, but it simply wasn’t there. I’m not one to complain about an uber-fresh beer and the hop-burn therein, but I welcome not that’s both fresh and mild all the more.

Smooth, creamy, soft, and pillowy – that’s how B52 My Spirit Viking sipped in terms of mouthfeel. The initial flavor was slightly tart with perfectly light carbonation, and that made way for a tongue-coating bitter finish that’s a bit against the grain for the hazy IPAs of late. The tart finish was suprising and welcomed considering the addition of lactose. The bitterness lingers in a green way despite the absence of super potent hop burn, and there’s a fruitiness from the yeast esters that’s welcoming yet a bit unfamiliar.

B52 seems to always be down for a collab. Urban South was a great contender for B52 because My Spirit Viking drinks, yet again, in a class all its own. I’ve mentioned before that I’m still not 100% sold on all the milkshake IPAs; some have been amazing while others have been far too sweet, but this B52 My Spirit Viking wasn’t too sweet at all – far from it, in fact.

You can catch some B52 My Spirit Viking at their Conroe taproom this week hopefully. If you’re not interested in getting out in the balmy 32 degree that our forecast has for the next few days, just hit up the homies at Hop Drop for delivery because they got what you need like Biz Markie. Use code “BEERCHRONICLE” for 10% off your beer delivery.