Stateside IPA
Saltaire Brewery Limited

500 ml bottle, from Ales By Mail. ABV is 6%. Hops are Cascade, Magnum, Summit and Galena. Copper colour, moderate head, slightly off-white. Aroma of toffee and moderate herbal hops. The flavour is first malty with a moderate toffee and caramel sweetness, then followed by distinct herbal and grapefruity hops. Well balanced and nice to drink.

 

 

 

500ml bottle purchased from Marks & Spencers, York.

Look: Deep golden yellow - a couple of fingers of foamy, white head and a considerable amount of lacing. Decent head retention and a few miscellaneous bubbles. This is not what you'd call a highly carbonated beer.

Smell: Even from a couple of feet away you can smell the hops - for me, this is a good sign and an indication that I'm going to get my hop fix. Get up close and personal and this is all about the hops. The Cascade 'smell' is there - full of citrus and pine resin with a vaguely floral hint. Malts are subdued to the point of being pretty much unnoticeable.

Taste: Much like it smells - plenty of hops give a lovely, dry tartness. The blurb states that it's brewed with Cascade, Magnum, Summit and Galena hops and for me the Cascade flavours really shine through - there are plenty of grapefruit and miscellaneous citrus hop flavours but the floral/resin notes aren't as evident as they are in the nose. There's a good, malt backbone underneath it all which is complemented nicely by the hops.

Feel: Light to medium feel - there's a hint of acidity but really it's all about the dry, astringent taste of the hops and the attendant long, bitter finish. Really rather refreshing on a day like this (warm and humid, at least by UK standards ...)

Overall: A pretty solid rendition of an American IPA - plenty of hop character, Cascade in particular, and a bit of a punch in the ABV to go with it. Quite a few so-called American (or rather, American-inspired in the case of British breweries) miss the mark by a long way but this one doesn't. Not a hop bomb by any means, but worthy of attention in any case. Even better, it's available in supermarkets too.

Pale orange with loose white webbing that goes fast but leaves some lace.
Resin, herbal, citrus nose.
A bit of biscuit and apricot cut by marmalade, some grass, and a bit of rough bitterness.
Baby aspirin finish and herbal linger.
Round, slight cling, light hinting at medium.

Cascade, Magnum, Summit and Galena - strange combo, only one pure aroma hop in there. Lots of bright orange - I suspect that's the Summit up front in judicial doses. Maybe too light, but nice to not OD on the crystal in the name of "balance".

Lives up to the name more than expected; respect to Saltaire.

A 500ml bottle with a BB of Oct 2013. Picked up a little while back from Trembing Madness in York. Described on the label as an American-style IPA hopped with Cascade, Magnum, Summit and Galena hops.

Poured into a tulip pint glass. A clear orange-amber hue with good carbonation. Yields a decent head of creamy white foam that lasts for a few minutes before settling as a patchy surface layer. Some lacing. Aroma of faint caramel malt with subtle hints of white grape, melon and citrus. A whiff of buttery diacetyl in the background. Lacklustre.

Tastes of mild caramel malt with a hoppy bitter finish. Notes of white grape, melon, grass, mild citrus, faint yeast esters and stewed hops. An unwelcome hint of diacetyl lurks in the background, followed by a surprisingly strident bitterness upon swallowing. Mouthfeel is smooth, dry and tingly, with pleasant carbonation and decent body. Rather astringent, with an aftertaste of bitter aromatic hops and faint butteriness.

Not bad, though drinkers of US IPAs would probably categorise this as more of a regular American pale ale. The aroma is unusually weak and doesn't give much away, but the flavour is a bit more robust with fruity notes and bitterness shining through. Body is OK. The only let-down is the diacetyl, which spoils the aroma/taste. Too bad Saltaire don't condition their bottles with live yeast - I suspect this would be better on cask. A decent attempt that is worth trying if you chance across it, but no need to seek it out.