Palisade IPA
Sly Fox Brewing Company

Enjoyed at the 2006 IPA Project in December. This had the same clear, orange/amber colour characteristic of the entire series. Good head retention with decent lacing. Citrus aroma, a little earthy and musty, maybe some herbal notes. Lower apparent bitterness than some of the other members of this series. Hop flavour was mostly tangerine with some earthy, herbal notes. Lingering bitterness. Good texture. Again, not a bad IPA, just a little one dimensional due to the single hop. The aroma might have been deteriorating a bit as well.

It came to me an orangey copper, slightly cloudy, and with a finger of off-white head the dropped soon to mere traces. Lacing was moderate and fine.

The aroma brought a solid malt backbone, with caramel and a hint of vanilla. The lightly floral hops also brought an air of dry citrus.

Upon tasting, the caramel note in the malt pushed forward, but was soon grown over by the floral spiciness of the hops. A grapefruit and pine pairing was present, but a bit on the thin side, and shifted to bitter in a quick step toward the door. The finish saw a flash of residual malt bested by a lingering dry bitterness. While certainly reasonably tasty, it's also pretty one-dimensional.

Pretty much light bodied, it has a momentary presence on the palate that washes away quickly.

Well, there's noting truly wrong here, but I was hoping for some more depth of character, and it dropped away in that area.It has all the pieces in place, just maybe not enough of them. Now, it does go down readily and smoothly, making it quite drinkable. It just seemed to leave a little on the field is all.