It’s a very cold and rainy Saturday, and we’re just working around the house. So since it’s barely after noon, I thought I’d grab a beer. This is one of the beers my friend Joe brought me from down South when we met up a couple months ago to do the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Since it’s an IPA, I thought I’d better drink it before the hops fade much more. It does say that it was canned in March 2017.
Location: Poured from the can into a goblet style glass at my home in Bloomington, IL.
Numbers: 6.8% ABV, 62 IBUs, 1.061 OG, ~220 Calories
Appearance & Aroma: It’s orange in color and has a big, creamy, cream-colored head on it that lasted the entire time I drank it. It’s a bit cloudy with a big grassy-citrusy hop aroma.
Taste & Feel: The body is medium, and the head helps give it a little bit of creamy mouthfeel to counteract the hoppy crispness. The flavor up front is mostly a grassy hop flavor with some citrusy flavors behind it. In the middle the hop flavors get richer and are joined by some bitterness. It finishes with a mix of grassy and citrusy hop flavors, which edge out the bitterness a bit. However, the bitterness is what kicks in during the aftertaste and lasts for a minute or two.
Food Pairing: There is mostly grassy and citrusy hop flavors in this beer, and I usually like a burger or other meat to stand up to the hop flavors. I find the hop flavors also contrast nicely with cheese. I also had some jalapeno poppers with this beer, and it worked great with the cheese and helped enhance the spiciness quite a bit.
Overall Impression: I always enjoy it more when the brewer focuses on bringing out the hop flavors rather than just assaulting your tastebuds with harsh bitterness. While this beer had a decent amount of bitterness in the aftertaste, the beer contained mostly hop flavors. Overall, I liked the balance of hop flavors and bitterness, and would have preferred some hints of maltiness behind it.
My Rating: 
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