Salvation IPA
Atwater Brewery

L: A thick coppery color edging slightly deeper; a foamy light tan finger of head is what remains after a turbulent pour and aggressive carbonation; leaves a bit of spotting along the glass
S: Not a substantial aroma, but a decent offering of pine, citrus, and lightly sweet malts
T: The flavor is similar, and the hop punch promised is offset by a somewhat more substantial malt presence than expected; citrus pith is fairly prevalent, but it ends up a hint tinny over time
F: The medium body has a bit of carbonation and almost offers some smoothness, but fades a bit quickly and eventually goes a bit thin and flat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The carbonation was the worst I've ever seen in a IPA, or any beer for that matter. Very bitter without any hint of citrus or malt backbone at all. Very thin consistancy. I'm a hophead and always looking to try new IPA's. I hope the other Atwater offerings are better than this one. Worst IPA I've ever had.

Bottle bomb. Got a gusher. Pours me over a half glass of rocky and gaseous froth. Body is a milky looking copper. Volcanic amounts of carbonation rise through the body to support the epic head. Nose is plastics and phenolics. And sugary caramel malt. Hugely gaseous in the mouth. Flavor is astringent and bitter. Bitter in the bad way. Not good. Atwater is not one of my favorite breweries.

I poured two ounces of this beer, and my entire pint glass was filled with foam. This is the second Atwater beer I've tasted, and both have done this. This is very annoying, and alone would cause me not to buy there beer again. So now, fifteen minutes after I started to pour this beer I am finally about to drink it. The aroma is of chemical, with hints of citrus, but there chemicals really dominate. The aroma is of citrus and grapefruit, with the chemical thing from the aroma not being present. Still it has not complexity to it. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with too much carbonation. Overall, this is a bad beer that I will not drink again.

Not a bad IPA from a not so bad brewery. It's not among my favorites but a very solid beer for the style If I lived in the area I'd drink it a lot but not as good as the colorado and california beers I look for when they're in the New York Area.

Good color, average appearance, good taste, decent mouthfeel and decent drinkability.

whoa..this is the worst ipa i have ever tasted..it poured a light orange color with a huge fluffy head the smell was bitter like iron and minerals the taste was worse it had a metallic bitter iron taste no hops no grapefruit no sweet malt back bone just awful ..the mouthfeel and drink ability are 0..this is the worst beer ive ever tasted i took 4 sips and then drained the bottle..something i almost never ever do

pours copper orange with a a 1+ finger head that left spotted lacing

smells of apples pears some malts

taste is bitter sweet fruit up front with a very dry finish

moutfeel is light refreshing crisp

drinksability is ok - i think i got an old bottle since it tastes like apples but all in all its good

A: Clear amber in color with some minimal sediment. Good foamy head with decent amount of lacing.

S: Strong smell of bready malts and overwhelmingly yeasty. Something is not right here: Bread is good and yeast is good, but this isn't good.

T: Not surprisingly there is more yeast funk in the flavor with some light malts and a strong, unpleasantly bitter, grapefruit finish. Typically I enjoy a nice, strong, hopped up bitterness, but this bitterness is harsh, slightly astringent and, just not very enjoyable.

M: Medium body with decent carbonation.

D: No.

Brown 12 oz bottle poured into a 20 oz pint glass. The first 20 oz pour was 100% foam. After pouring that down the drain, the subsequent pour was 95% foam. This is just ridiculous. Frankly, I'm surprised a beer can be carbonated to this level without the bottles exploding. After 20 minutes, I managed to get perhaps 8 oz of beer into my glass. The rest of the review proceeds from there.

A: Retention and lacing are, of course, wonderful. The beer is an ever so slightly hazy golden/orange. The part of the pour that is actually liquid looks nice. Brownish specks come out at the end of the pour; can't be sure if they're yeast or something less pleasant.

S: Earthy with pine, some citrus, and just a little alcohol. Actually very nice for an AIPA.

T: Ordinarily, this level of carbonation would scream "infection" to me, but I can't taste anything definitive. Background bitterness is evident, with cardboard-y oxidative character and harsh solvent alcohol taste. Reasonably pleasant hop aftertaste once you get it down. Maybe a hint of a brettanomyces flavor.

M: How is this still carbonated?! Mouthfeel is actually good for the style.

D: Given that more than half of my experience with this beer involved trying to pour it, the drinkability is out of 2.5 rather than 5. That said, it is not the worst beer I've ever had, so it gets a 1.5.

This is my fourth bottle out of a six-pack and I've given up on it. Atwater initially replied to emails and indicated they would give me a refund, but I haven't heard from them in months. I will certainly never be trying another one of their beers.

Kumquat orange with a surprising amount of gentle snowfall yeast amidst a few trickles of slowly rising bubbles. The head is ivory in color and picks up a hint of pastel tangerine from the beer beneath. Plenty of persistence and loads of good looking lace pull the appearance score up to its final perch.

Salvation smells nothing like an IPA because it smells nothing like hops. Using Cascade for dry-hopping should have done *something*, but the only thing noted is a little caramel malt and a whiff of butterscotch. Warming actually makes it worse, not better.

Why did I think this Atwater Block beer would finally be the one to be good? These guys have let me down too many times in the past for that sort of optimism. Despite having a claimed 67 IBU's worth of bitterness, Salvation is not a good IPA. Not even close.

ABB beer always tastes skanky. I've alluded to the possiblity of Detroit river water in past reviews, but it may be an especially crapilicious house yeast strain (assuming they use the same one for the entire lineup). How this brewery manages to survive in one of the best craft beer states in America is dumbfounding.

The malt base (tastes like a mixture of pale and caramel) isn't sturdy enough. A moderate amount of buttery diacetyl doesn't do the flavor profile any favors. The hops provide a little bitterness, but they come up significantly short on good, fresh hop flavor. A bit of grapefruit rind... yadda, yadda, yadda. I've had better homebrewed IPAs.

The mouthfeel is actually decent given the slightly lower than usual ABV. It's light-medium and has a fair amount of creaminess thanks to spot-on carbonation. Other than the look, mouthfeel is the highlight.

Salvation is yet another in a long line of Atwater Block ales and lagers that fails to reach the standards of acceptability... much less quality. I've had too many bottles over too much time to think that a bad batch here or there is responsible.