711. Big Wood Brewery – Bark Bite IPA

Posted By kkozlen on Aug 5, 2014 | 0 comments

My son had several of his friends over tonight to play, so it was pretty crazy here. After all the kids left, I was finally able to sit down and crack open this beer. I picked up a four pack of this brew when I was up in Minnesota a couple months ago at Mayo Clinic. I had never heard of this brewery before, but it was in the Minnesota brewery section, so I thought I’d give it a try. The can says, “Check out the chompers on this one. He doesn’t quit. Long after your day is done, Bark Bite is still working hard, bringing the bite. Because where bark bite’s from, you don’t stop until the last drop. And then you kick back, relax, and say things like ‘see this lake? It was a babbling brook before I got here.’ Brewed with citrus hops, it’s front loaded for a big refreshing bite. ”

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

Numbers: 6.6% ABV, 50 IBUs, ~230 Calories

Numbers: Hops: Columbus, Centennial, Fuggle, Chinook

Appearance & Aroma: It’s straw-yellow in color with some orange hues. It’s fairly hazy, with a big white, fluffy head on it, which fell after several minutes, but still left decent lacing. The aroma is all lemony and citrus hops.

Taste & Feel: The body is light medium and the mouthfeel has a crisp, hoppy bite to it. There’s a slightly sweet, bready and cracker-like maltiness up front with some lemon citrus flavors from the hops. The bitterness grows in the middle, along with a citrus and pine hop flavor. The bitterness becomes pretty sharp in the finish along with some pine and resin hop flavors.  Those flavors last for a minute or so in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: This beer has a fair amount of lemon, citrus, and piney hop flavors.  If you wanted the beer to stand out, it might pair with a fish dish (although it would easily overpower the fish).  I think it might stand up to a pork tenderloin or a solid Asian dish.

Overall Impression: I enjoyed the maltiness up front, but was a bit surprised by the amount of lemony citrus flavor. It did shift throughout, bringing more pine and resin hop flavors, with a sharp finish. I expected the sharp hop bitterness in the finish, since its name is “Bark Bite.”  Overall, it was a decent IPA with a bit of a unique hop flavor (with the lemon flavors).

My Rating: