Île De Grâce
Loup Rouge

 

Poured on tap at ChurchKey DC into a tumbler glass.

Very uniform one finger head of the pour with off white color. Pale amber body with slight cloudiness. Head also gives some creaminess in appearance.

Bouquet is more of an English IPA sense with tea herbacious qualities. Ooolong black tea and some bitter, but also a faint floral sense hidden behind.

Taste is an interesting mix of English and American styles. Nice sweet malt but soft bitterness on the swallow. Floral hops seems to slowly creep and linger slowly taking over all the flavor and bitterness while drinking. Fairly medium bodied and rich and full.

Overall this is an interesting marriage and I'll say it's one that works quite well and was able to be pulled off.

A: Very nice dark yellow/orange color. Carbonation is vivid and make a lovely and strong white head. Very translucent.

S: Need I say hops? Grapefruit totally dominates the smell. flower characteristics are also very presents, only a tad less than the grapefruit. Hidden, there is a nice malt sweetness.

T: 120 IBU in your face. This beer will shatter your mouth. It is really out of this world. I've tasted a lot of IPA but this one is definitely the biggest tasting I have ever had. Sure it's very hard to get my hands on things like Pliny's and Hopslam, but I bet this one will be on par with these giants. Grapefruit and flowers dominate once again. The malt is much stronger than in the smell, while still being very much inferior to the Hop fest but making it a little bit more balanced.

M: Very good. They managed to get a nice smoothness out of this IPA. Mid to high carbonation with medium body. Not watery at all. Simply what it takes to give a good IPA a nice feel.

D: Well, that's the problem with a 5,5 % 120 IBU beer. It really is very strong tasting and will shatter your taste buds. In my case, after 2-3 glasses, I don't really want another one. But, I'm not very a hophead guy, so YMMV.