Murray's Fred West Coast IPA
Murray's Craft Brewing Co.

A - Pours a hazy golden orange with a two finger head that leaves big lacing.
S - Tropical fruit hops, passion fruit and orange. Smells nice.
T - Bitterness upfront then flavours of pine and citrus and nice bitterness to end. Not much malt on this one.
M - Medium carbonation with a moderate body. Has nice bitterness throughout and goes down smooth.
O - A pretty solid IPA, not much malt to speak of but what it lacks in malt it makes up for everywhere else.

Look - hazy dark orange in a glass with a 2 finger dissipating head.

Smell - juicy hops! This smells really juicy. Tropical fruits, fresh squeezed orange juice, smells really good.

Taste - follows the smell very well. Not much malt to speak of, it's all hops. Not too much of a bitter finish. Just juicy tropical hops. Excellent beer. This rivals a lot of the top IPAs in my opinion. Hidden gem.

A 330ml bottle with a best before date of 13th March 2016 poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass.

Appearance: The beer poured a hazy golden orange colour with a foamy two to three finger off white head that has great retention and leaves nice stringy lacing.

Aroma: Strong tropical fruit aromas mainly mango, pineapple and passion fruit. There are also hints of citrus orange and maybe grapefruit ending with pine.

Taste: Very much like the aroma. The tropical pineapple and passion fruit is there but with flavours, the pine and citrus grapefruit really come through. The malt is sweet and there is only a slight bitterness at the end.

Mouthfeel: Dry, medium to light bodied with light to medium carbonation.

Overall: I have to say, this one has surprised me. It is very easy to drink and I really enjoy the tropicalness of it.

 

A - Pours a slightly cloudy orange, honey colour with frothy white two fingered head that retains well

S- Not overly strong on the nose, citrus, burnt orange and pine nuts

T - More noticeable on the palate, some pineapple, grapefruit, passionfruit are fairly prominent, a little peach, some sweet malt but balanced ok with a bitter/lemon like finish

M - Medium body with medium carbonation

O - Not a bad summery IPA, aromas initially are not quite there but taste wise it packs a decent punch. A good summer session beer

Pours amber with a small head.
Nose shows passion fruit, grapefruit and sweet malt.
Similar flavours, some fruit and sweet malt but there's a cardboard note too.

 

Fridged from Warner's.
Surprisingly middle of the road offering from Murrays's. Not as bitter as I would have imagined West Coast style. More balanced, more malt, and mostly pineapple and peach. Light carbonation overall.
Very easy drinking.

 

fred ipa (bb 30/12/15, released 26/12/14, ~12 days old (?))
640ml bottle

A: pours a hazy safety orange with a solid 2 fingers of soapy/foamy off-white head, medium-long retention, solid lacing
S: quite muted, strong sweet malt backing to the nose, solid pine throughout and a good hit of nice sweet orange/citrus, a little peach in there too
T: as expected. equally good hits of resiny goodness and lightly bittered citrus, definitely gets more tropical (pineapple/peach) as it hits the halfway mark, nice grapefruit + rind finish, sweet malt keeps it on the ground and prevents it from becoming a palate wrecker
M: medium-light body, maybe should be a little heavier but (along with the ABV) the weight makes it very easy to drink, medium carbonation, a bit drying, lingers a bit too long
O: a solid easy-drinking 'west coast' IPA, being not overly bitter was a little surprising but welcome, easily the best generic american IPA I've had in AUS.

bottle says 5.6% ABV, must've changed from 6% since bottling

Well, well... and what the hell- a third ‘well’! Murray’s are back to counter the claims that they’re a bunch of wusses (said claims made by me about their recent brews) with Fred - a big fat 6% ABV IPA, and if that’s too many initialisms in a sentence IDK because I’m happy to see Murray’s taking off their LBT (Little Boy Trousers) and putting on their BMP (Big Man Pants).

Poured from tap into a 425ml Schooner.

A: Cloudy pale orange with a foamy white 1cm head. Yum, because yeast is good for you people, get with it already. 8/10.

S: Big pine/citrus hops with hints of tropical fruit (passionfruit and lychee). No telling if there's malts in there - the hops are nose crushingly bold... as if that's ever a bad thing. 8/10.

T: Exactly as expected: Big pine/citrus hops lead into those delightful tropical fruit characters. There is a light caramel malt base that gives the hops carte blanche to tap dance all over your tongue. Finishes with a hefty 75 IBUs of grapefruit bitter-goodness. 8/10.

M: Again tap beers rule, this has a medium body, little oiliness considering the amount of hops at play, and a lightish carbonation. 7/10.

D: Damn tasty for a hop lover like me, however you definitely want an American IPA palate for this bold Ale - it will kick your tongues ass! Wait let’s think about that for a moment - an ass on your tongue, does that mean when your tongues ass takes a dump it... yeah I’m just going to step out of the way of that train. Well it looks like Murray's are back hitting hard on the craft scene after some lacklustre brews, that’s the Murray’s I know and love, go Murray’s! 8/10.

Food match: Spicy foods such as Mexican or Spanish tapas with extra paprika, actually stuffed jalapeño chillies would go down awesome with this.