Short's ControversiALE
ControversiALE, FKA Hangin’ Frank, is a tribute to Simcoe hops. Simcoe hops are extremely sought after and limited, so Short’s is excited to share this brew with Michigan craft beer lovers every spring. The earthy, citrus and pine-laced aroma is instantly delectable. A large amount of toasted grains and high alpha hops form a perfect union that creates the sensation of toasted sourdough covered with grapefruit hop marmalade. While this beer is hopped like IPA, it drinks like Pale Ale. The light, refreshing qualities of this beer make it perfect for springtime.
3.5
278 reviews
Bellaire, United States
Community reviews
This is a good session IPA. Nice flavors of hops and a well-balanced malt backbone. It’s clean and decent all around.
Deep orange. Nose of soapy grapefruit and light malt. Flavor is full malt body with more citrusy, sudsy, grapefruit hop bittenress. Lingering bitter grapefruit.
Bottle:
Hazy, amber, with a small off-white head.
Orange, resin scent.
Orange malt, orange-peel, pine taste.
Mild, easy-drinking......nice earthiness.
Very good.
(En fût à Sport Shotz Detroit Airport): Terreux, juteux, machable, quelques onions et une sécheresse pas tout à fait installée.
Bottle courtesy of my friend Lance. Thanks! Amber pour with a tall, frothy white head. Aroma is floral and piney with sweet malt and caramel. Taste is floral hops, pine citrus, sweet malt and caramel notes. Body is medium with a dense, creamy carbonation. Light lingering hop bitterness as well. Finishes with more pine, floral hops, citrus, sweet malt, and light caramel.
Clear sparkling gold, nice moderate hop smell. Taste is a bit oily, fairly clean, medium bitterness, standard.
Pours hazy copper with foamy, off-white head. Nose is mostly hops with some citrus. More hops in the flavor with a sort of coating mouth feel.
Bottle from Capones. Pours hazy copper with frothy, off-white head. Nose is bready caramel malt, hops, orange marmalade. More hops, some earthy notes, and subdued citrus in the flavor.
12 oz. bottle, consumed on 5-10-16. Pours a clear bronze with a small amount of beige head. Boring appearance. Hazier liquid, larger and creamier head, and substantial lacing improves the appearance of later pours. Sweet, malty aroma with hops secondary. Scent of powdered sugar, muffin, and a touch of dog food. Cooked, acidic, savory food aroma. Lightly bitter and lightly dry. Subdued, citric hoppiness. Medium body. Lively and reasonably frothy in the palate. Subpar IPA. I’m not impressed. I suspect I may be drinking it a bit past its prime.
bottle @ Whitey’s / Lawrenceburg IN --- Aroma of pine hops. Hazy dark amber color, white head that drops to a cover, sheets of lace. Taste is semi-sweet malt that adds carbonation and a rush of pine hops on the swallow. The malt returns to share a long finish. A full brew, but a little hop heavy.
On tap at Giant Eagle in Grandview: gold with thin soapy white stick. aroma of grainy malt and orange. tastes earthy malt sweet, juicy citrus, light floral bitter. even. touch of onion. liked this despite high grainy level.
Aroma is dank hops and citrus/fruit/tea. The flavor is citrus, grapefruit, hops/slight hop resin, earthy, malts, very slightly coarse and a mix of bitter, tart and slightly sour in the finish.
This bottled brew from a bottle shop poured a very small sized head of cascading foam white colored bubbles that were very quickly diminishing and left behind a softly carbonated transparent light orange brown colored body and a poor lacing. The mild aroma was hoppy floral and musty. The sharp mild citrus mouth feel was tingly at the start and at the finish with a medium hoppy aftertaste. The nice flavor contained notes of bitter and hops. A decent one that I would consider drinking again.
On tap at Hopcat. Aroma of grapefruit and grass. White lacing. Very bitter with a lingering aftertaste.
12 oz bottle to IPA jar, pour is hazy mahogany with creamy tan head, good lacing, smells of sweet caramel malt that pretty much dominates, syrupy but not too heavy, taste is the same, earthy, some pine, all I really get is the caramel with some spice finish, not much citrus, not my favorite type of IPA
Rated on 4-05-2016 at The Hoppy Gnome, Fort Wayne, IN. This draft beer’s appearance is a very small beige head that is mostly lasting, transparent golden body, no carbonation noted, and no lacing. The aroma presents pine hops, aromatic, fruity, grapefruit, pineapple, spicy, earthy, and biscuity malt. The flavor is pine hops, fruity, light spice, and biscuity. The mouthfeel is moderate carbonation and this beer is medium bodied. Overall, this beer has a moderate lingering hoppy aftertaste.
bottle to snifter that poured a mild burnt orange color with white head and decent lacing on the glass. sort of like others the initial aroma for me is dry roasted peanuts and a nice hoppy (simcoe) aroma. the flavor was really good. medium malt base with some floral in the hops and some citrus. but damn if still don’t get the peanut flavor. don’t know where it comes from and its not bad just different and this one is very drinkable.
Bottle pour dark orange gold with moderate white off head. Nose some tropical fruit hop, light dank, and I also get an underlying nut, cashew or peanut. Taste moderate bitter bite up front, then floral and peppery spice hop. Moderate dank.
12 oz. bottle from a six pack purchased at Dutch’s. This is one of the brews they launched their Ohio distribution with, and I was in the mood for an IPA to sip during Wrestlemania. This one turned out to be pretty unusual and not exactly what I was feeling, but it’s good nonetheless. Pours a barely cloudy darkish orange with a relatively small white head that settles into a lasting film and leaves some patchy lace in the glass. The major note in this - which my brother-in-law agreed on, and said before I even shared my thoughts - is nuts. Peanuts, specifically. It also has notes of pine needles, citrus peel, sweet and lightly toasted biscuit malts, tea, and light spice. Light-medium bodied, with moderate carbonation and a bitter, toasty, sweet, and nutty mouthfeel. Really unusual IPA.
Hoppy aroma. Smooth and balanced. Bread and cereal, citrus and hops. Lightly bitter with some grapefruit through the finish. All in all, a very nice IPA that is not overly strong or bitter.
Hazy, copper-orange pour with a white head. The aroma has pine and light citrus hops. It has a medium body with lively carbonation. The taste is bitter and dry with a long finish.
Pours a light copper gold. Light lacey head. Aroma has a coconut nutty minty thing. Dankish. Kinda yeasty, overall nice malt hop aroma. citrus and red fruits maybe. TAste is dry malt, some caramel, medium/dark caramel, grassy bitter with citrus. Foamy but dry and light drinking. Fairly heavy bitter. Decent ipa, I enjoyed the coconut like dank kind of hop aroma
Bottle. Deep gold and one-finger head. Nose of broiled broccoli, flavor of broiled broccoli. Is my first Short’s a bad bottle? Tastes like something my mama would make, but unpleasant in beer form. I’ll give another bottle a shot sometime.
12 oz bottle from Jungle Jims at the Shorts release event. Pours a clear dark golden/amber color with a medium sized off white head. The aroma and flavor have grapefruit citrus, earthy, light resiny hops, grainy, toasted malts, a splash of orange, mild to moderate bitterness, decent ipa that I would consider again.
12 is bottle no date. Medium hoppy aroma. Very bitter, big grapefruit taste. Hop resin. Really happy to finally see this on the shelf in Illinois, had this beer in traverse city in 2011, before using this site, and remembered liking it a lot.
Shared 12 oz. bottle poured to snifters, showing a lightly hazed, orangey gold color, with a modest layer of bubbly, white head foam, and light spots of lacing. The nose was dank, a bit of resin, with ripe fruit, pulp, and a touch of earthiness. Light bodied, with fair carbonation, but somewhat watery texture, the taste added a moderate, citrus & rind bitterness, and some finishing dryness. Okay, but not altogether wowed.
Best shorts beer to date. Aroma is piney and resinous. Flavor is hoppy, dank and piney. Nice hoppy finish. Great IPA
Pour on tap at HopCat, hazy dark orange pour with white head, aroma brought notes of nice grapefruit, orange, slight resin, pine into some grass, caramel, slight lemon. Taste was a mix of lemon, orange, slight grapefruit, some pine into bread, biscuit, finishing slightly bitter. Nice.
As someone exhausted with insanely hopped beers, I loved this stuff. I can enjoy the hops without complete bitterness on the back end.
12oz bottle into ipa glass. Pours orange with head that disappears quick and sticks to the glass like suds. Aromas of pine, orange led citrus and sour white bread. Pine lead flavors, resin, orange rind. Crisp finish, mild bitter, mild hops. Easy drinking.