Our flagship beer. A session India Pale Ale brewed with Warrior, Amarillo & ’Mystery Hop X.’ A powerful East Coast I.P.A. with a lot of citrusy hop character. THE session beer for beer geeks like us! 6% abv 60 ibu Tasting Notes: Citrus, cedar, pine & candied-orange flavors, floral.330ml bottle of a 6% ABV 60IBU beer (1.68 standard drink units)
But first I get a bread aroma, yeasty, Orange golden pour with a decent head. Lucky the aroma dissipates, but nothing takes it place to mention.
There's a fair tang of bitterness from the hops, but it's against a fairly soft back, so nothing alarming. I don't pick up 'floral' or 'fruits'. It's fairly polished and sits where they say it sits, even if I find it soft in the middle.
I don't actually get much by way of taste though, it's just an unassuming beer, done well.
The pdubyah-o-meter says 7 arbitrary things, they might lead with this, it's their bread-and-butter and that's never going to be pointing towards a brew that is likely to make eyebrows raise. But do try it as a fine example of an IPA that would get you a marker on more bitter/less bitter beers.
To be honest I was slightly disappointed with this much respected beer that I have been waiting for ages to taste.
ReplyDeleteI thought it poured a nice dark orange body with a rich biscuit/malt nose, but 'bready might be a better description. That yeasty/bread flavour was slightly masked by the caramel & toffee, but apart from a soft bitterness, I couldn't get any hop characteristics. I guess I am now too much of an NZ Hophead to appreciate a beer without a floral/citrus component...!
Having said all of the above, it was still a good beer, a fine example of it's type, and I am looking forward to the other 5 bottles....
- SteveG