Sitting Bulldog IPA
Gotlands Bryggeri

Feb. 2014: 330 ml bottle, as Gotlands Sitting Bulldog IPA. Wisby is not mentioned on the label. ABV is 6.4%. New at Cardinal Pub & Bar, Stavanger. Amber to copper colour, moderate white head. Decent aroma of jam / marmalade and fruity hops, hints of spruce. Medium sweet flavour, with distinct fruity and piney American hops throughout, and a solid bitterness in the finish. Not bad at all from Gotlands Bryggeri.

I throughly enjoyed this beer while in Sweden! I was very impressed with how good it felt.

Poured into an appropriately Nordic tulip glass after 10 minutes on the counter. Pours a perfectly clear copper, with a slightly off-white vibrant head that slowly recedes into a film and rim around the edge, and leaves plenty of lacing behind. Most IPAs steer away from this color these days in NYC, but the clarity is damn impressive. My half-asleep cat is confused as to why he can see me through the glass.

Honey and malt come first on the aroma, pleasantly different from my usual IPA fare, followed by an earthy, piney, almost evergreen hop note. A straight forward aroma, a bit muted, but pleasant.

Flavor follows the aroma closely at first, but as the sip warms up the hops take front and center stage. The introduction is definitely the pine/evergreen note, but it quickly changes into a fruity flavor. I get why their website talks about black currant and figs -- I would not have thought of that without looking, but it's spot on. I also get a little plum, but it's nearly non-existant, so I wonder if I'm stretching for it. There's a honey, caramel sweetness to it, and it's a quite pleasing contrast to the hops.

Light to medium body, nice carbonation zip, with plenty of resin.

The flavor is overall fairly subdued, in a very good way. It's not a beer that beats you over the head, nor is it a beer that takes excessive effort to dissect. I look forward to trying this fresh someday at the brewery in Gotland, as I imagine my future travels will inevitably take me to Sweden.

 

I had this at an Italian restaurant in the High Coast of Northern Sweden.

(L) It has an amber clear hue with a nice thick white head that dissipated slowly with nice lacing.

(A) It has a nice piney aroma.

(T) The taste was grassy, grapefruit, piney, a bit sweet, a bit dank, old style IPA.

(F) It had a medium body and medium carbonation. It goes well with spicy pizza.

 

Clear amber color with off-white head. Aroma has earthy, lemony and piney hop notes with some malts in the background. Taste is balanced. You get the earthy hops but also a slightly nutty malt flavor. Medium body and carbonation. Overall this is a very old school IPA with a good malt/hops balance but nothing really special.

 

L:
-pours a clear amber with a small to medium,foamy,offwhite head
.low to medium carbonation visible
S:
-spicy,doughy,caramel,orange,peach
-subtle overall
T:
-grassy,orange,caramel,pine
-medium bitterniss for the style
F:
-medium carbonation
-light to medium body
O:
o.k-ish IPA

 

 

 

Nice fruity aroma with a slight citrus aroma as well. Good malt backbone with a slight sweetness. Color is dark for an IPA.

 

 

 

The quality seems to be inconsistent in different batch.

Have one that was pretty good, which has fresh fruity smell (tropical & citrus).
But the others are sour and malty, not I'd like to have within IPA.