485. Schooner Exact Brewing Co. – Hopvine India Pale Ale IPA

Posted By kkozlen on Oct 5, 2012 | 0 comments

I’ve had a great day and evening so far, stopping at several breweries throughout Redmond and Seattle, Washington.  This evening, my cousin and I have been walking around his neighborhood of Ballard, going from brewery to brewery.  So far this evening, he and I have stopped at Fremont Brewing, Reuben’s Brews, NW Peaks Brewery, and Hilliard’s Beers (and that’s after stopping at Black Raven and Pike Brewing Co. earlier in the day).  By this time in the evening, we knew we needed a bite to eat, and so he suggested we stop at Old Town Alehouse for dinner and a beer from another Seattle Brewery.

Location: On tap and served in a large pint glass at Old Town Alehouse in Seattle, WA.

Numbers: 6.6% ABV, 60 IBUs, 195 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: It’s golden in color and very slightly hazy.  It’s got a good amount of carbonation in it, giving it a quarter inch thick, creamy white head, which had some good retention and left some lacing on the glass.  It had a grassy-floral hop aroma to it.

Taste & Feel: The body was medium bodied and the mouthfeel was crisp from the carbonation in it.  The hop flavors hit almost immediately, with some grassy-floral hop flavors and hints of honey maltiness and fruitiness in the background.  The hop flavors intensified in the middle, with grassy-floral bitterness kicking in during the crisp and somewhat dry finish.  The hop flavors lasted for a minute or two in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: This IPA had plenty of grassy and floral hop flavors.  It went nicely with my beef dip and “alehouse fries.” The beef and peppers balanced the hop flavors nicely, giving it even more complexity.  The crispness of the beer did a good job of helping to cleanse the palate and make way for the hop flavors.

Overall Impression: With a name like Hopvine IPA, I was expecting some pretty big and intense hop flavors.  While it had plenty of hop flavor and bitterness, it wasn’t over the top.  It was a solid IPA with lots of flavor, but the malt backbone didn’t seem to match up quite enough to the hops.

My Rating: