Green Flash West Coast IPA
Presentation: 12 oz. bottle poured into a Stone pint glass.
Appearance: Light orange color with a huge off white head that very slowly
dissipated. Some very nice chunky lacing stuck to the glass after each drink.
Aroma: Sugary floral aroma with pine from the Cascade and Centennial hops. There's also plenty of orange, lemon, and
grapefruit, which are distinctive of Simcoe hops. The Columbus hops provide a blast of resinous aroma. This bouquet is simply spectacular and everything one could want in the
aroma of an IPA.
Taste: Tons of piny hops with some citrus (lemon, orange, and grapefruit) to
compliment the bitterness. The pine is the star here though. This is as
unbalanced as an IPA can get and it's great. This is a pine bomb with
enough citrus to make it actually work. The bitterness smacks you in the
face at the first sip and just keeps going.
Mouthfeel: Medium to thin body with moderate prickly carbonation. It's fairly crisp and finishes pretty dry.
Overall: This is just great. By far one of my favorite IPAs. The West Coast has the
IPA game down. I usually dislike unbalanced IPAs, but Green Flash manages to make it work. There is just enough citrus to keep things interesting and prevent it from becoming one long hop note, which plagues so many IPAs (I'm looking at you, White Rajah).
5/5
Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA
Presentation: 12oz. bottle poured into a tulip.
Appearance: It has a rust color with a fluffy tan head that very slowly dissipates. The rust appearance is definitely a little out of the ordinary for an imperial IPA. There was also some
very nice lacing left behind.
Aroma: The simcoe hops in this are great. The best way to describe this is a
juicy pine. There's pine, resin, dark fruit, orange, grapefruit, spice,
and a bit of malt. There is so much more to this than I expected from one hop. The juiciness that the simcoe hops impart is spectacular.
T: Wow, this is not nearly as bitter as I expected it to be. This is more like 53 IBUs, than 153. It has a
best buy date of October 2012 so I guess it's just the intended
character of this beer. Nonetheless, there is quite a bit of pine and
sweet citrus (orange, grapefruit, lemon), which is obviously from the
simcoe hops. There's also a prominent malt backbone with a bit of
toffee/caramel. I can't quite tell if the caramel was intended or this
beer was beginning to become oxidized. It's also pretty warming at 9%,
but the alcohol is actually hidden pretty well for such a strong beer.
Mouthfeel: Medium body with quite a bit of prickly carbonation. This is pretty
crisp, but there's a sticky, syrupy feeling to it too somehow. It's not the most pleasant mouthfeel for a beer.
Overall: This was pretty good, but this is not nearly bitter enough for me. I
don't know that I've had an imperial IPA with this much of a malt
presence. I loved the aroma and the juicy/citrus flavor, but the lack of
bitterness and syrupy texture is an issue for me. This is definitely proof that IBUs can be misleading.
4/5
-Lacked bitterness
-Mouthfeel was less than desirable.
-Jeff
No comments:
Post a Comment