906. SweetWater Brewing – Triple Tail Tropical IPA

Posted By kkozlen on Jun 16, 2018 | 0 comments

It’s a Saturday night, and we went to my daughter’s show at the local community theater earlier today. Other than that, it’s been a day of getting some things done around the house and watching some movies with my dad who is here this weekend – for both my daughter’s show and my son’s baseball game tomorrow. Work has not been great, as I’m trying to figure out and learn my new job. So, tonight, I’m just going to enjoy a beer. This is one of the beers my friend Joe brought me when we met up in Memphis last weekend. He usually brings me beers from down south (he lives in ATL), and I try to hit the IPA’s first. This one sounded good, especially after the heat we had today.

Location: Poured from the can into a TEKU pint glass at my home in Bloomington, IL.

Numbers: 5.5% ABV, 57 IBUs, ~170 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: It’s bright golden in color and it’s a bit hazy. The head is pillowy and bright white, and had pretty good retention and lacing. The aroma is tropical fruits and a bit tangerine-like from the hops.

Taste & Feel: The body is somewhat light, and the mouthfeel is crisp from hops and carbonation. The flavors up front are bright and tropical juiciness with some lemon and pinapple. In the middle, there’s a light malt sweetness that comes up a bit to meet the hop juiciness. The tropical hop bitterness comes in during the finish with a hint of spiciness, and it’s met by some juicy sweet hop flavors as well. In the aftertaste, the hop spiciness comes up a bit along with the tropical hop bitterness and juciness that lasts briefly.

Food Pairing: This is a pretty light, bright beer, which I think would go great with a summer salad, a light fish, or my preference, which would be sushi.

Overall Impression: I though this was a very, very drinkable IPA that’s perfect for a hot summer day. It’s light and bright and the tropical hoppiness and juiciness make it fairly thirst quenching. The hop spiciness in the finish and aftertaste was a bit unexpected from the tropical fruits, but it brought in some flavors that reminded me a bit of a rye ipa – in that way. Overall, I think this would be a tremendously good beer for a hot day on the beach or after mowing the lawn.

My Rating: