IPA Plus
Devils Backbone Brewing Company

 

Served in a Devil's Backbone willibecher.

The "Plus" is for some extra dry-hoppin'. FYI and all that rot. It pours a clear pale straw topped by a finger or so of white micro-foam. The nose comprises a lotta pine, some grapefruit, a pinkie o' kiwi, and some background radiation of caramel. The taste follows, holding notes of hoppy pine and citrus, toffee, and a light touch of pepper and/or rye. The body is a heavy light, with a lightly moderate carbonation and a kinda sticky feel. Overall, a solid IPA that I feel was nicely helped by the extra dry hopping.

Served in a distended pint glass at Devil's Backbone, Wintergreen, VA, on 08/08/09. Didn't catch the abv% on this one.

Appearance: Arrives a golden orange-bodied brew, crystal clear and filtered, capped by a fast-fading pure, snow white head. The retention on this one was somewhat disappointing, as I like my DIPAs to have wicked awesome retention. Alas, this one just fades to a faint thin dusting and a relatively weak-ass looking collar of spongy foam. The lacing is slightly better - a few sticky, runny streaks leave stalactite formations and blobs all over the sides of the glass. The carbonation is plentiful, of an average speed, and of an average size.

Aroma: Definite Cascade notes in the aroma, with a minty, spicy herbal note and a thicker, chunkier, mid-level citrus note dominating. The former isn't vegetal, but does come across as incredibly herbal, alternatively like mint, rosemary (hints of pine?), and thyme. No parsley or sage, however. The citrus, in turn, is largely orange based, though there are both heavier and lighter notes (mostly lighter).

Taste: Cascades ahoy! A strong, crisp, sweet backbone - reminiscent of honey, a reminiscence which is reinforced by the spicier aspects of the hops (they don't come across as cloves, but there's something about them that's similar) - provides the underpinnings for a Cascade onslaught: oranges, lemon zest, mint, tobacco, grass, hay, faint grapefruit. It's about every note that you can get out of a Cascade hop, which is both good and bad, in that it's reasonably well-rounded, but, perhaps a little more could be done with this one, and despite the variations, it does come across as a little one dimensional, somehow.

Mouthfeel: A well-carbonated, crisp, "large" mouthfeel, in that it's fluffy, "big," but still relatively even and smooth. The thickness imparted by the sweet, sticky sugars courtesy of the underlying malt bill are evened out rather well, I believe, by the carbonation on this one. Not half bad.

Drinkability: Hmm. This one is startlingly complex for being so one-dimensional - it's just so overwhelmingly "Cascade"-y as to come across as not too terribly interesting. To be fair, I'm not a huge fan of the hop - I think there are better, more interesting, and more diverse hops out there, and I know this one grows well in the area and I know it's the cheapest, most readily available, most "American" hop on the market, but still.