Greeley Double IPA
Woodstock Inn Brewery

 

 

 

 

 

I picked up a single 16oz can ($4.00) yesterday at The Beer Store in Nashua and am diving into it today....

Poured the contents into a small tulip. Yay! A clear DIPA! I'm not really getting into the new, hazy fad. Most of those do still taste fine, but I like a nice, clear, bright golden DIPA, and this one does the job! It is a rich golden hue, with scant, scattered carbo lazily heading topside. The head is a short, rocky layer of white foam, which has now ebbed back a bit, though the edges still have foam aplenty and A-1 lacing. Aroma has a good mix of some sweeter citrus along with the necessary piney bitterness. It feels quite smooth, with hardly any prickle; and the body is a bit more than medium.

Flavor follows up on what the nose initiated.... Sweet fruit like tangerine and apricot mixes with some rindy, resiny action to make a lovely layer of lupulins on the palate. There is a bit of caramel and toasty malt to start, but the hopping is lovely! Like a well-made marmalade on a grainy hunk of toast. Quite nice, all in all! Will have to try to score more of this before it disappears! Prosit!

4.27/5 rDev +8.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

1896

 

 

 

Clear golden pour without much of a cap. Having spent way too many nights at this brewery I long ago grew fond of the particular, and to me very evident, unique quality to the aroma and flavor that spans, and is common to, most of their styles. Not sure if it is from their yeast strains or malt, though It's most pronounced in their wheats. I wish I could describe it - kind of a soft, round semisweetness, but it's easily detected in Greeley, so i knew I'd enjoy. Aroma is dominated by said character, but nicely complemented with some tropical notes and slight pine. Flavor follows almost dead-on. Very smooth and mellow slight bitter finish. Strange DIPA in the whole scheme of things, pretty much no surprise here and much enjoyed.

 

 

Seems like a lot of NH breweries (the meh, the underrated and the well-received, alike), have been putting out double IPAs recently. Not a bad turn of events whatsoever! Thus, we look into how Woodstock Inn fares with their limited edition DIPA, Greeley! I've actually been pulling for Woodstock Inn for a while now, since I've always been a big fan of their flavored Autumn ale and have enjoyed some of their smaller batch beers to a good extent. Not sure I saw them dropping a double IPA, though...

Pours a fairly clear medium-amber color with a nice, voluminous head that dissipates to a rocky 2 fingers after about 5 minutes in the glass. Lace display is phenomenal, with incredible cobwebs of foam hanging around. The clarity this displays puts it at odds with a lot of modern IPAs and DIPAs from New England, but I, for one welcome this change of pace. I'm a huge fan of trend-bucking, and welcome Woodstock Inn's attempt to make something solid that doesn't conform to the trend towards unfiltered, strong pale ales these days.

Nose is very much West Coast, with sticky grapefruit and pine resin up front. Slight bready malt and sticky caramel are notable after those hoppier elements, for sure, but I still get a lot of citrus and light tropical fruits. Light grassy elements and some forward notes of ethanol are noticeable here as well.

On the tongue this presents with a slick and oily palate of expressive hops ranging from the citrusy to the tropical, with some catty notes and light citrus rind. Caramel malt, coconut and slight toffee elements manifest on the maltier side of things. At only 8%, this carries itself like a slightly bigger beer, with a medium-heavy feel featuring a slightly bigger, burlier malt body than I expected. Honestly, it kind of works for this brew, though, given its pine-y and bitter finish. Great balance to the flavor here.

Feel is actually pretty solid, with smooth and adequate carbonation building up to a semi-malty mid-palate that ends up finishing pretty dry. This is a really good DIPA from a brewery I would not really expect to make such a beer. Kudos to them for making something that doesn't really conform to the "New England IPA" standards. There are plenty of those around, and this stands out because it feels more like a West Coast, old-school double IPA.

 

 

 

Can from A Lazy Dog
Crystal clear deep golden bordering on amber with a huge frothy off white head that persists. Initially I got a hint of acetone on the nose, but luckily that went away. Big resin and pine almost hide the juice tropical fruity notes in here. Light sweet bread and a hint of ethanol round out the nose. The flavor is big pine and resinous hops with a fairly forward alcohol presence. Faint malt underneath and just a touch of higher alcohols. Not bad, at least its not too buttery, but for the price point (4.50 for 16oz) it should be knocking my socks off and it isn't.

Poured into my 13 oz Weyerbacher tulip glass canned on 1/13/17. Pours a very attractive amber with a solid two finger off white head that leaves behind plenty of patchs of lace.

Smell is apricot, ripe mellon, tangerine, guava, pine resin, and grapefruit.

Taste follows but much more aggressive. Apricot, mellon, guava, tangerine, a healthy shot of piney grapefruit in fairly bitter finish that lingers awhile after each sip.

Mouthfeel is maybe a little bigger than medium, plenty of life, a little dry, and very drinkable for its 8% ABV.

Overall this is a very solid DIPA, they have popping up out of every local NH Brewery lately.