708. Rock Bridge Brewing – Rye You Lil’ Punk Rye IPA

708. Rock Bridge Brewing - Rye You Lil' Punk Rye IPAI was in Columbia, MO a few weeks ago and before I left town, I stopped at the local grocery store to pick up a few local beers, including this one. I heard about this brewery, but haven’t had any of their beers yet. They had a couple canned beers from them at the grocery store, so I thought I’d start with their IPA. It’s a cool looking, 16oz can that came in a four pack. It’s been a challenging day fixing stuff around the house, so my wife suggested I chill out on the back deck and enjoy a beer.

Location: Poured into a large Sam Adams Perfect Pint glass at my home in Bloomington, IL.

Numbers: 7% ABV, 75 IBUs, ~230 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: It’s amber-orange in color and fairly hazy. There’s a creamy, thin, white head on it, that had good retention and left some decent lacing. The aroma is resinous with grass and pine hops and hints of caramel malts in the background.

Taste & Feel: The body is medium-to-full and the mouthfeel is a bit creamy and oily, with some crispness from the hops and rye spiciness. The flavor up front is a mix of resinous hop flavors with some caramel maltiness in the background. The bitterness and rye spiciness grows in the middle, and the hop flavors become a bit more complex, with some grassy and piney hop flavors coming in. The bitterness and spiciness peaks in the finish with a mix of hop flavors – pine, grass, and resin being the most prominent. The hop flavors last for a minute or two in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: This beer had a lot of different hop flavors with mostly earthy tones. Tonight, I had this beer with some pizza, and it went pretty good. I think it would also go nicely with chicken wings or fried foods as well.

Overall Impression: I enjoyed this IPA and thought the bitterness mixed quite nicely with the spiciness from the rye. The hop flavors we’re quite complex throughout, but came together a bit too much in the finish, giving it a bit of an earthy mix where none of the hops really stood out. It was very, very drinkable and went down quickly. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good IPA, and next time you’re in Columbia, or at Mizzou, give one a try.

My Rating: ★★★☆☆

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Author: kkozlen

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