Hop Fusion
The Brew Keeper

A 650 mL bomber purchased at Vintage Estate in Boardman, OH.

A: The IPA is a copper color, clear as I can see the same hue as a bottle. The result is a translucent appearance. The head is larger than I expected, over two fingers of dense foam that lace in thick patches.

S: The IPA has a mild citrus aroma. I stress mild because I struggled to find it behind the caramel malt body. Following the ignominious start, I swirled my glass vigourously and released a little more citrus than the first sniff.

T: The IPA is very subtle. The hops don't stand out until you dwell on them. On thinking, they stand out a little more. A thinking man's IPA, I like the ring of that. Caramel malts stand out with a mild breadiness. Hops are C-centric, with a leafy vegetal finish. The citrus hops take a while to get going before they break through. When they do, the citrus and pepper flavor is solid but not spectacular.

M: The mouthfeel is nothing sensational, taking a little to long to reveal its hoppiness. The malt base is solid though and the hops have moments of greater-than-average flavor.

D: The ale is a little too strong to really dig into, especially with the moderate hop presence. Where is the alcohol coming from, if not from the hops? Darned if I know. I liked Mad-arillo much better.

Poured from a bomber purchased at Reider's Market in Painesville a few months ago for $7.99 into my Stone Levitation Ale goblet. No observed "freshness" or "best by" date on the label or the bottle. My label does announce that it is 6.5% ABV though.

A Really nice looking Mohagany/orange glowing body which let some light through but it is mostly opaque under a medium brown and very generous silky head that leaves nice lacing on the glass. Really a nice look and one that I did not expect from this small brewer.

S Well hops predominate but it is not too overwhelming. There is some malt and the smell of alcohol as well. Inviting, interesting, right on target for the style.

T/M This is a huuuge beer with mainly hops, a moderate to thin hop presence (it is not real well balanced with the grapefruit bitterness tipping the scales significantly) and a kick of alcohol in there too. It reminds me very much of some of the Stone beers that I have had (not Levitation although it looks great in this goblet!).

D Well I will finish this bomber (for the sake of the review of course) but this is such a big beer that it will be all that I could handle. It really demands your attention.

Notes: The first in a long line (about 12) bombers from The Brew Keeper that I bought that day and will now rate. I am starting with the ones that feature hops so as to try to maintain their freshness.

I love small local beers. While visiting Cleveland on business I had the chance to sample beers from the Brew Keeper. This beer was served in a pint glass.

Appearance: The beer pours a coppery orange coloration. The head is thick with a creamy coloration. The head maintains througout the consumption of the beer. A thick road map of lacing remains on my glass.

Smell: The beers aroma is of caramel maltyness. This combines well with a subdued citrus, floral grassy hoppy aroma. A bit of a let down for die hard hop heads. I am not a hard core hop head but wanted a bit more hops in the nose.

Taste: The flavor of the beer starts out as caramel. Tis combines with a bit of pine tar hoppyness. A brief flash of citrus grapefruit hops. The beer then finishes with a nice hop bitterness. Again hop heads may feel let down. In all honesty I am enjoying a well balanced pale ale.

Mouthfeel / Drinkability: The body of the beer is medium. The carbonation level of the beer plays nice. This is a well balanced easy to drink IPA.

Presentation: 1 pint 6 oz bottle into a nonic.
*6.5% ABV noted on bottle (6.75% listed here)

A- Copper with a bit of a haze. Pours with a massive, creamy, off white head, which fades slowly to a thin cap, leaving tons of lacing. Outstanding retention.

S- Moderate citrus/pineapple and pine hoppiness, with fairly solid sweet, malty notes. Nice.

T- A hops bitterness explosion on the first pull. Mostly pine and floral. Moderate caramel maltiness emerges to provide a bit of a counter-punch to the hops. After a few minutes, the flavors of this beer really seemed to come together and improve.

M- Moderate carbonation. Medium feel, and somewhat creamy.

D- Decent. The hops bitterness was just a bit too harsh, and knocks the drinkability down.

Future outlook: Decent local-ish, in-state IPA from a small brewer. In a sea of outstanding IPA's, not worth buying again soon, but good enough to earn a trial of some more of their other stuff.

Poured into my sam adams glass from a 22 oz. bomber, it appears a clear copper with a tight frothy head on top. Great first impression for this beer that was brought back from OH by a non-beer geek (I think I got lucky with this one). Aroma is not over the top, but I do get citrusy (tangerine) hops and a little caramel malt to balance. As I go to taste the beer, I am amazed by the mouthfeel! Almost creamy with a gentle and adequate carbonation. Goes down easy with dry citrus flavors and ample bitterness for any hophead. Some malt and a little alcohol in the background. I would definitely pick this up and/or recommend this if I stumbled upon it myself.

Hop Fusion is very clear and copper in color. It looks a little orange when backlit. It's topped with a gigantic off-white head that's easily three fingers. It's very slow to dissipate and leaves an immaculate coat of thick, sticky lace clinging to the glass. I approve...in a big way.

One whiff clearly reveals a big and diverse hop bill. There's citric and floral elements. The usual grapefruit and pineapple scents are sweet and easily noted. Hops are prevalent in the nose, but there's a healthy amount of malt here, as well. Perhaps it's an obscene amount. I'll hold that call for now, but that aspect could be very detrimental (in my humble opinion, of course). It certainly hurts the nose.

I can tell from the first sip that I'm going to struggle to get through this bottle. A strong caramel malt flavor is very prominent from the get go. It's way too much for me. Hops are easily noted, but they lose much of their pizzazz in the sea of caramel malt. Yeah, I guess you could say it's balanced, but that's not really appealing to me in an American IPA. There's some citric hop flavor here. Perhaps a little floral, as well. But, their effect is substantially mitigated by the malt presence. Alcohol is mildly noticeable. More than it should be. I don't know the exact abv, but I'd be shocked if it's over 7%. A little hop bitterness creeps in on the finish, but it's too little, too late. Very average.

It has a medium body that's not bad at all. Carbonation is buzzy and it has a bitter bite on the finish, so it's tough to tell if it really smooths out. But, it's close. I'll give it that. Drinkability is very average for me. The flavor's not bad, but it's backward for an American IPA and features too much sweet malt. There's some decent hop flavor here, but there's a lot more buried by the malt. Pretty average.

Hop Fusion is a disappointment for me. It shouldn't be. I've heard some good and more bad about The Brew Keeper's beer. This one's not overtly bad, but it's nowhere close to being good. To the extent there's a caramel malt presence in an American IPA, it should be background music to the hop flavor's lead role. That's not the case here. Caramel malt's way too heavy in the mix and it hurts this beer quite a bit. At least that's my view of it. Certainly personal preference plays a role on that issue. For me, it's a huge one.

As a side note, I have absolutely no idea what the hell an American Amber IPA is, but it's not working for me. The label claims that style. I've never encountered it before. If this is the benchmark for such style, it's not one I'll be looking forward to much. This might be worth a try if you see it, but I won't go any better than that.

Thanks goes out to beveritt for this brew.

22oz. Bomber

This one is skunked, but I'm still writing a review.

Pours a hazy dark golden color, way too much carbonation, huge foamy off-white head, tons of foam left behind. The nose is malty, some hops, some citrus/pines. The taste is malty, with some hops, hot, slight soury, citrus/pines. Medium body. Not drinkable, I'm disappointed with this brew, was looking forward to trying it out.

Appearance- Deep amber with cream head. Decent retention and lace.

Smell- Nice mix of hop flavors. Some citrus, followed by a light toasty balance.

Taste- Toasty, bready malts. Well-balanced overall, with a of medley of bitter hop flavors.

Mouthfeel- Light-medium body. Not as much body as I'd like, but adequate. Nice carbonation.

Drinkability- Overall, this one is refreshing and well-balanced. If not for the price tag, I'd probably get a couple bombers of this for an evening.

22 oz. hand bottled bomber bottle with a simple crude homemade white label of one of those nuclear signs. In the middle of this white label is a bright yellow square with "Danger" is bold red and yellow letters with the "warning nuclear" symbol below that. Instead of red lines, this nuclear symbol was 3 hop buds hovering around a green dot. Below this yellow square is a brief sentence about the beer. To the far left of the label is the Brew Keeper's address and the ABV%. To the far right is just the Government warning. Don't waste your time looking for any kind of date because the Brew Keeper doesn't date their bottles.

Appearance: I poured "Fusion" into an Imperial Sly Fox pint glass. I truly wasn't expecting for this beer to pour this kind of color with this kind of murkiness. Instead of pouring a shade of yellow, this IPA poured an extremely murky cranberry amber with the slightest glimpse of yellow at the bottom of the beer. What a cool color this beer had! The head of foam was just as impressive as the color. This beer had one of those ever lasting heads of foam on top of it. When liquid was removed from under the head of foam, that's the only time the head of foam receded. When it did recede, it left behind a 1/2 an inch skim of white foam, a few spots of lace, and a couple of small streaks of lace. I also have to mention about this beer's 2 tons of hop particles floating around this beer. That's why it was so wonderfully hazy. This beer was eye candy all the way!

Smell: At first, this beer smelled exactly like strawberry fruit roll ups. When that subsided, it comes the hops. The scent of hops wasn't overwhelming. They were in between mild and strong. I got a few varieties of hops in the nose. I got a little bit of citrus hops mixed in with some grassy hops and a touch of fruity hops. After the hops, there was the subtle whiff of tart grapefruit, pine needles, and toasted caramel malts. I thought it could have used more caramel malts to help balance out the 3 hop varieties. Now if the Brew Keepers increased the scent of hops a touch, this beer's smell would have been just as nice as the appearance. As is, "Fusion" has a nice mildly hoppy aroma.

Taste: I hate to mention the appearance again, but I have to. When I saw all the hop particles floating around this beer, I instantly thought this beer was going to be over hopped. Instead, this IPA went down the well balanced mildly hopped road. It says it was brewed with 4 hop varieties, but I only got to taste 2 of them. That's clearly OK by me. This beer was mostly bitter with citrus hops with a slight pinch of grassy hops to back it up. These hops went well with the level of toasted malts in here. That's why I said it was more well balanced than overly hopped. In between the hops and malts was a pinch of dry and tart grapefruit, a drop of lemon zest, and a splash of coriander. Was this beer power hungry with toasted malts or hops? Nope! Both of them shared the taste equally. That's what I like to see in IPAs.

Mouthfeel: "Hop Fusion" was medium bodied with a dry hopped aftertaste of citrus hops, grassy hops, bitter and tart grapefruit, a splash of lemon zest, and a subtle touch of toasted malts. Despite the aftertaste being bitter, it really doesn't stick around for very long.

Drinkability: In the end, this was a very good well balanced mildly hopped IPA. if you like your overly hopped IPAs, then you'd probably want to steer clear of this beer. If you want a well balanced IPA, then this beer is for you. For me, I really enjoyed this beer. I wouldn't make a session beer out of it, but I wouldn't deny another one. Lately, the Brew Keeper has been popping out some top notch brews and this is one of them. If you want sign they are, then try this beer.

Dark bronze-like orange with brighter tangerine edges. The beer is a rich, warm, wonderful color, but an odd one for the style. The label calls Hop Fusion an American Amber IPA, so maybe The Brew Keeper has invented a new sub-style. The golden beige colored crown looks great as well. It's packed with character and has blasted the glass with extensive, frost-on-a-windowpane lace.

Obviously, the darker color is due to a significant amount of caramel malt, as is proven by the nose. Think Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale with a bit less hoppiness. It's obvious that one or more of the C-hops is in use. I'll go with Cascade and Centennial. Possibly Simcoe and/or Amarillo as well. Note: my taste buds made those guesses, not my nose.

Hop Fusion is damn good beer if you like caramel-malt dominant IPAs. Who doesn't? I can't believe it took me so long to discover this place. It's obvious that the Keeper can Brew his ass off. A quality IPA is harder to brew than most people realize, despite all the talk about hops being used to cover up flaws.

Although hopheads might prefer more lupulins, most everyone else should be more than satisfied with HF's balance, both in terms of sweet vs bitter and in terms of English toffee maltiness vs white grapefruit and spruce tree hoppiness. Seriously, this stuff can compete with all but the very best.

The body/mouthfeel is impressive as well, largely because the beer drinks at least as big as its ABV (6.75%) and possibly even higher. It's medium-full for the style and has a polished glass smoothness due to near perfect carbonation. Jolly good show.

Hop Fusion is an impressive IPA from a brewery that wasn't even on my radar screen two months ago. If the goal was to brew a Celebration Ale clone, then the bullet hit the bull's eye. Looks like I'll be making regular stops at The Brew Keeper whenever I'm back in Cleveland.

Enjoyed at the brewpub. C-hop aroma, grapefruit colour, lacey, lots of dots about. A tasty fruity IPA,bitterness backed by caramel, fresh.Fairly conventional compared to the many experiments going on these taps. Average mouthfeel. Drinkability is very good.

I have discovered the Brew Keeper years ago and reviewed the Bedford location on another website dedicated to establishments overall rather than the individual beers themselves. (Now, with BeerFly, I'm all BA) The Brew Keeper moved to North Ridgeville and I discovered them a few months ago. Buckeye brewing was the beers they served, but now I find that it was two separate brewers. Happily, the hop head went here. Mad Brewer has beers that are totally different than anything I've tasted, and this IPA was no exception. It had little lace with no head, but had an electric orange and hazy appearance. It was sweet and hoppy smelling, grapefruit was pure and defined. Standard. Mouth was creamy and energized with faint grapefruit going down with strong malt aftertaste.

Taste? Not strong, malt and hops with the alcohol kick. Strong grapefruit hops, raisin and a little tangerine in a malty, wheat base. Simply put, the best I've ever had.

Yes. I have this every time I go, and it is always good. I need to write down more of my reviews because I've found Mad Brewer to be the best tasting brews in Cleveland. Fresh=Nectar

NOTE: This review moved over from the Bedford location, but enjoyed for the past two months