Flume Creek IPA
Northern Ales & Grocery

2 ounce sample at Spokane Brewers Festival. Maybe it was a bad keg but this was borderline undrinkable. Anything more than a sample size would have watered the nearby shrubs. A very hazy ugly yellow, with a modest amount of off-white foam. Very little to no aroma. Taste was hardly better. Little to indicate an IPA, or even a beer.

 

I bought a six-pack of Fume Creek IPA at Total Wine and More. Poured in to a pint glass.

Pours a dull gold color, cloudy with a modest bubbly white head.

Smell is really quite good, sweet pine and citrus aromas.

The taste is kind of a let down. There isn't much of a malt presence, and the bitterness is more like dandelions than grape fruit.

Mouthfeel is just OK as well. There s a bit of a cloying character., and dry bitter aftertaste.

Overall an average IPA. There are better.

 

At a tasting @ Huckleberry's. ABV 6.5% per brewer.

Pours a yellow with a surface of white bubbles and some moderately diaphanous clarity. Some pine, resin and grapefruit tones on the nose, pretty standard PNW style. Flavor follows suite with dry hops and grapefruit notes; a little herbal; not really impressed. Too much strait bitterness sans diversity in flavors. Medium body with modest carb and semi dry finish. This would be okay in a pinch on a hot day if served ice cold, but flavor doesn't really do it form me otherwise.

Poured into a Gulden Draak tulip. Pours a dark orange amber with fine particulates floating throughout. Half finger off-white head that dissipates rather quickly to a fine film with nice lacing. Aroma of sweet malt, herbal and citrus hops. Flavor dominated by sweet malt and herbal somewhat astringent hops. Finish is quite hoppy with more astringency and a light bitter mineral flavor. Medium to heavy bodied with some creaminess. The initial flavors are well balanced between hops and malt but the bittering hops have an odd off flavor. This is obviously well made and I look forward to trying other beers from Northern Ales.

12oz bottle purchased at Bottles in Millwood, WA, for $1.99. No freshness date.

Poured a cloudy orange-amber color with a good-sized off-white head. The head took a few minutes to drop and left lots of lace.

Grapefruity hop scents and not much else make up the nose of this beer.

Like the nose, the hops are pretty much the only thing home, flavor-wise, except for a bit of maltiness that keeps the hops from getting carried away. Tastes a bit one-dimensional. As it warmes it, there’s a mineralish flavor in the background.

Medium bodied, with a slightly oily mouthfeel.

A serviceable IPA, but there are much better ones out there just as cheap or cheaper. Doesn’t seem infected like the last Northern bottle I had, but there’s not much else to praise about it.

Poured from a 22oz bottle into a Chimay glass.

Interestingly the site lists this as being from Kettle Falls, but the bottlelists it as being from Northport.

Anyway, it pours a nice opper orange, with a good meringue head that disipates and leaves a good ring of lacing around the top.

Smels of bittering hops, a little piney, but quite subdued, not too hop forward, so not indicative of a NW IPA, but still nice for a general IPA.

Taste is nice and malty upfront with a little floral hops, followed by washings of bittering hops and then some moremalt. Really quite nice as an IPA, good example. bordering on American and Traditional

Mouthfeel has good body, and the finish is nice

Very good offering. Maybe not as hop forward as some would expect, being a Northwest offering.

A - Pours a medium orange with a thick white head. A bit warm so carbonation comes out a bit.

S - Some citrus notes with a decent malt backbone. Not as powerful an aroma as I'd like in an IPA.

T - Hop forward with some earthiness and caramel character. Pine and a bit astringent.

M - Light bodied. Carbonation enhances the flavor well.

D - a decent IPA that I'll drink again if it's still around for a while. You never know with these little local offerings.