IPA

Here we have a beer from one of the earliest craft beer breweries in the US, Sierra Nevada, in Chico California, and soon to have a brewery here in the mountains of North Carolina. This is the winter/Christmas seasonal Celebration, 6.8%ABV. This is fresh hop ale, so that is using fresh hop not dries pellets of hops like in some IPA’s. This is also known as a wet hop. This ale was created in the winter of 1981 and always has the year on the neck label. Sierra Nevada uses whole-cone American hops in this fresh IPA. This is my first time having this, but my second Sierra Nevada beer. Celebration pours a nice rich amber color with a light tan head five-finger head that just sticks around forever and makes such massive lacing around the glass. I did find some light coming through the glass with a small amount of carbonation there. The aroma of Celebration is big pine needles with a big citrus fruit like grapefruit, orange, and some pineapple. There are orange and grapefruit juice. This just has that classic west coast fresh IPA aroma to it. This is just a very nice smelling IPA. The taste on Celebration is amazing, with a big grapefruit hit at first with a nice orangey/orange juice flavor right behind that. There is a little pine needle taste there too, but it’s a bit faint. Yes, there is hop bitterness thereto, but it’s more of a citrusy and slightly less hop plant-like. The finish on this is clean a bit fruity and slightly hoppy but does finish nicely. The aftertaste doesn’t linger too much just enough to be enjoyable with a piney pineapple, big grapefruit, and a little orange. Celebration has a great balance between piney and citrus hop aromas and flavors, and it wowed me. So this is getting an A from me. This is a good example of a classic fresh hop ale/IPA. Sure it isn’t what you expect from a winter beer, but hey it’s something different for the winter season and it is great. Yeah, it could have been a little more on the fruit or hop flavors to make it an A+, but not a whole lot could be done. This is a near perfect beer. I love this and highly recommend this! So go out and get it before it is gone. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

A few deliveries ago Brewpublik sent Straight to Ale Monkeynaut India Pale Ale, 7.25% my way. This IPA has one crazy cool label on it’s can, an Astronaut monkey in space. Straight to Ale Brewing in Huntsville, Alabama one of the few homes of NASA space program. Monkeynaut pours a deep orange color with a slight haze to it and a three finger off-white slow fading head with dank aromas of slight garlic with  hints of a malted sweetness and some hop bitterness that flows to a dank resinous garlic flavor with a nice big bitterness and hop flavor that finishes just as bitter as it starts with a lingering hoppy note that gives you a strong hoppy bitter aftertaste that there until you take another sip all with a medium mouthfeel. Straight to Ale Monkeynaut is a strong bitter IPA but not so bad I give it a C- and don’t think you can have more than one, it will wipe out your taste buds, I know that I won’t. The bitterness on this IPA takes away from all the other flavor in Monkeynaut and really holds it back. Monkeynaut needs more malt flavor to balance it out and sort of smooth it over. I wouldn’t recommend Straight to Ale Monkeynaut. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!  

Founders Brewing Azacca India Pale Ale, 7.0% ABV with 70 IBUS (Founders Brewing is located in Grand Rapids Michigan) which came via a Brewpublik delivery, is named after the Haitian god of Agriculture and is brewed with Azacca hop which has an intense tropical aroma. Azacca India Pale Ale is also brewed with Caramel Malts and pours a burnt orange color with a three finger semi-off white head that slow to fade into some decent rings of lacing throughout the glass giving of fresh tropical fruit aromas like citrus and some mango with faint sweet malts that lead you to the taste of tropical mango and citrus up front with a Caramel Malt sweetness on the back and finishes with a sweet tropical fruitiness giving you a tropical fruit juice aftertaste with a nice touch of sweetness all with a light mouthfeel. Azacca India Pale Ale is amazingly tasty and well deserving of an A+ with nothing worth reporting negatively on. I highly recommend Founders Brewing Azacca India Pale Ale, it’s a must-have beer, and one that is worth having again. Azacca India Pale Ale is very well balanced between the tropical fruity hops and the sweet Caramel Malt backbone, which makes this a very well brewed beer. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!    

Here is another Craft Happiness IPA Project from Foothills Brewing, this is Sustenance IPA, 7.0% ABV and 75 IBUs. Sustenance helps the 80% of North Carolina households that need food/meal assistance. Sustenance IPA pours an orange color with three finger white head that fades into nice lacing with grapefruit, orange and citrus aromas with earth notes that lead you to a taste of nice citrus grapefruit, orange and slight earthy pine bitter hop notes with a nice citrus fruit salad finish and an aftertaste that is slightly bitter with hints of faint earthy pine notes with a medium mouthfeel. This is again another great Foothills Brewing Craft Happiness IPA project beer, it’s definitely an A+ and a beer that is worth having. Sustenance IPA is an easy drinking IPA that has a flavor that doesn’t overwhelm your tastebuds. You should find this and take it home for a drink, I highly recommend you do. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!  

I picked this Wooden Robot Brewery Juice Island India Pale Ale, 7.0% ABV and 69 IBUs from their brewery here in Charlotte, NC this is the first ever canned beer from Wooden Robot. I hope this isn’t the only beer to be canned. Juice Island India Pale Ale is brewed with six pounds per barrel of bold juicy American hops. Juice Island India Pale Ale pours a bright orange color with two and a half finger white head with good retention and leaves behind minimal lacing, giving off juicy tropical/citrus fruit aromas with a slightly bitter hop note, that leads into a juicy tropical fruit flavor with a some citrusy notes, a slight sweetness and a nice smooth bitter notes towards the back of the mouth. Juice Island India Pale Ale finishes with a smooth juicy tropic/citrus fruit flavor with some bitterness and a juicy sweet aftertaste that linger for a bit on your taste buds with a light to an almost medium mouthfeel. This Wooden Robot Brewery Juice Island India Pale Ale is a great first canned beer, its definitely an A+, a very flavorful juicy IPA. I loved it and if you ever come across Wooden Robot Brewery Juice Island India Pale Ale do try it I recommend it. The Wooden Robot beers are all great as is this one! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!        

This Red Hare Brewing Company Gangway IPA, 6.2% ABV and an IBU of 65 was from a past Brewpublik delivery.  Red Hare Brewing Company in Marietta, Georgia brews Gangway IPA with Willamette, Chinook, Cascade, and dry hopped with Falconers Flight. Gangway IPA is unfiltered and pours a deeper orange color with a three finger white head that is kind of slow to dissipate into some okay looking lacing in the glass and gives off slight citrus, earthy pine aromas with some bitterness on the nose with a bitter citrusy earthy pine flavor that is more bitter on the back of tongue and mouth than upfront, its more citrus and pine up front, with a bitter citrusy finish and a little bitter grapefruit aftertaste with a light to somewhat medium mouthfeel. I enjoy this Red Hare Brewing Company Gangway IPA but it didn’t wow or really excite my taste buds, but it was good, B- grade. I wouldn’t pass Gangway IP up if I saw this again but I wouldn’t go running right back for another. After about two to two and a half, the flavor of this IPA would start becoming too much on your taste buds. Like I said Red Hare Brewing Company Gangway IPA is good. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!   

I spent four days in the car on a road trip to Vermont to pick up a new family member, a puppy. On day two (going up). My family and I stopped in Pittsboro Vermont at a gas station and deli. While waiting for my sandwich I saw this really neat label on a can of beer so I picked it up to purchase. This is Collective Arts Brewing Rhyme & Reason Extra Pale Ale, 5.7% from Hamilton Ontario Canada. This beer has four different artists, one on each can. This can has art from Cinta Arribas of Madrid Spain of two ladies conjoined by their braided ponytail. Rhyme & Reason pours a darkish orange color with a slight yellow hue and a big three and a half finger of billowy white head that gives off tropical fruits like mango, pineapple, orange with some malt notes and a similar tropical fruit flavor with nice mango, pineapple, orange, and with a nice plesent bitterness and some malted noted to keep it blanced till you get the nice tropical bitter finish with a fine tropical fruit aftertaste with a nice smooth light mouthfeel. This was really good and nicely balanced. Collective Arts Brewing Rhyme & Reason Extra Pale Ale is an A. I like how this extra pale ale was so extra that is wasn’t an IPA it was exactly a pale ale with extra ‘pale ale’. This is one worth going back to and if you every is Pittsboro Vermont or Hamilton Ontario Canada you should defiantly have Collective Arts Brewing Rhyme & Reason Extra Pale Ale. Cheers! Please Enjoy Responsibly!

This is on the trend with today’s IPAs this is Epic Brewing (Denver, Colorado) New England Style India Pale Ale AKA Citralush, 7.0% ABV. This is a hazy IPA, unfiltered brewed with Citra Hops.  New England Style India Pale Ale AKA Citralush is part of a series of New England IPAs that will rotate every two to three months. Citralush pours a deep dank hazy orange yellow color with a one and a half finger white head with decent retention leaving good lacing behind with aromas of juicy grapefruit and mild orange and earthy hoppiness with some pine notes all coming together to bring you juicy grapefruit/orange flavors with big juicy hop flavors with nice piney dankness with a mild hoppiness on the back of the mouth and a little bitter juiced hop finish with a juicy citrusy aftertaste that linger on your tongue. This one will surprise you with its good juiciness and that gets an A. The flavor of Citralush is none too overpowering and flavorful, one that I recommend you go for and I would have this again. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!       

This post was originally posted May 30, 2014. 

One of my favorite breweries in the world is Samuel Smith Brewery in (Tadcaster) N. Yorks, England. I have pretty much had all of they’re beer in the breweries lineup, and they are all great beers. But I found one from Samuel Smith’s that I’ve not had yet, India Ale (IPA). Like all Samuel Smith beers, this is Brewed with hard well water and fermented in ‘stone Yorkshire squares. Samuel Smith’s India Ale 5.0% ABV and an IBU of 46, pours a crisp coppery orange color with a big four finger white bubbly, rocky head that sticks around for quite a while before fading away slightly, leaving behind great strings of lacing around the glass. There is plenty of light coming through the glass with nice carbonation bubbles racing towards the white foamy head. The aroma in India Ale is lightly grassy with a slight malted scent and touches of some light tropical fruit. The taste is very low on hoppy flavor but there is a slight hop flavor present to let you know you are having an IPA. There is a nice small tropical fruit note here with a nice malt backbone to go right along with the faint grassy notes. The taste is much smoother than some American IPAs. The mouthfeel is light to almost medium. Samuel Smith’s India Ale finishes nice but dry and has a nice faintly grassy fruity aftertaste. Samuel Smith’s didn’t disappoint me with this India Ale at all, so Samuel Smith’s India Ale gets an A+ here. A solid smooth drinking English IPA, well balanced. Samuel Smith’s India Ale isn’t overwhelming in the hops department. I highly recommend this to anyone looking to try their first IPA or to anyone who likes beer. So please go out and try Samuel Smith’s India Ale and see what you think of it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!