Experimental IPA 2017
Upslope Brewing Company - Lee Hill
- From:
- Upslope Brewing Company - Lee Hill
- Colorado, United States
- Style:
- American IPA
- ABV:
- 6.4%
- Score:
- 86
- Avg:
- 3.77 | pDev: 12.2%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 6
- Status:
- Retired
- Rated:
- Sep 15, 2018
- Added:
- Apr 09, 2017
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 5
SCORE
86
Very Good
86
Very Good
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Rated by tastocke from Illinois
3.95/5 rDev +4.8%
look: 4.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
3.95/5 rDev +4.8%
look: 4.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
This is the 2018. Good thick feel. Not much nose. Good flavor, thick and dank start, clean finish though.
Mar 27, 2018
Reviewed by thebeers from Pennsylvania
3.58/5 rDev -5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
3.58/5 rDev -5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
Clear bronze color with a massive three-finger sand-colored head that leaves thick lacing.
Honey wheat bread malt is up front in the aroma with some pine and faint grapefruit behind.
The taste has a light peppery element that shows before a flash of sweetness and then a mix of honey and pine bitterness on the backend.
Relatively light bodied and relatively still in the feel. It's okay. Best by of 8/1/17.
Jul 08, 2017Honey wheat bread malt is up front in the aroma with some pine and faint grapefruit behind.
The taste has a light peppery element that shows before a flash of sweetness and then a mix of honey and pine bitterness on the backend.
Relatively light bodied and relatively still in the feel. It's okay. Best by of 8/1/17.
Reviewed by Wasatch from Colorado
4.37/5 rDev +15.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
4.37/5 rDev +15.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
12 oz. Can
BB: Aug 01 17
Pours a very nice clean/clear dark golden orange color, with some very nice carbonation, with a very nice thick/creamy two-finger off-white head, which also leaves some really nice creamy sticky lacing behind. The nose is hoppy, with some malt, very nice citrus, with some slight pineyness. The taste is really nice as well, hoppy, some malts, with a really nice citrus note, nice little pineyness. Medium body, ABV hidden very well, with a nice dry/bitter finish. Overall, this is a very tasty IPA for the ABV. Way to go Upslope.
Jun 08, 2017BB: Aug 01 17
Pours a very nice clean/clear dark golden orange color, with some very nice carbonation, with a very nice thick/creamy two-finger off-white head, which also leaves some really nice creamy sticky lacing behind. The nose is hoppy, with some malt, very nice citrus, with some slight pineyness. The taste is really nice as well, hoppy, some malts, with a really nice citrus note, nice little pineyness. Medium body, ABV hidden very well, with a nice dry/bitter finish. Overall, this is a very tasty IPA for the ABV. Way to go Upslope.
Reviewed by Jugs_McGhee from Texas
2.48/5 rDev -34.2%
look: 3.25 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 2.25 | feel: 2.25 | overall: 2.5
2.48/5 rDev -34.2%
look: 3.25 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 2.25 | feel: 2.25 | overall: 2.5
CAN: Purchased at Argonaut Liquor in Denver, CO earlier today. "BB Aug 01 17." Pull-tab. Black and green label. 12 fl oz format.
6.4% ABV. Ingredients: snowmelt, malt, mosaic hops, Idaho 7 hops, lemondrop hops, yeast.
APPEARANCE: Clear pale copper body of good vibrance. Clean, filtered, enticing. No yeast/lees are visible within.
Head occupies ~60% of the glass. Off-white in colour. Frothy and full. Soft, fluffy, and inviting. Head retention is good - ~8 minutes. Leaves nice lacing on the sides of the glass as the head recedes.
AROMA: Caramalt and faint candy-like sweetness. No subtle blueberry from the Mosaic. Faint indistinct tropical fruit aromatics. Fruity more than anything, with some subsidiary floral hop character. No pine, juicy citrus, resins, herbal character, or grapefruit here. Pale malt sweetness seems to keep any hop bitterness in check.
It's a pretty timid tame aroma. Coupled with its meagre 6.40% ABV, that makes me suspect the "India Pale Ale" categorization is more marketing than reality...this suggests a pale ale.
Aromatic intensity is average.
TASTE & TEXTURE: Scratchy, dry, coarse, and parching/dragging on the finish...in short, the mouthfeel is terrible. Not the smooth, wet, light-bodied, refreshing texture one would hope for in an IPA (or a pale ale). Stale, medium-bodied, well-carbonated. Not oily, gushed, hot, boozy, or astringent. Certainly harsh.
Metallic off-flavour runs rampant throughout. Not that the beer would have been balance otherwise...hop bitterness scrapes the palate even before the abysmal third act, assaulting the drinker with hops but offering little in the way of flavour. When I search, I find some generic indistinct fruity hop flavour and some floral hop flavour. Pale malts comprise the backbone, but can't fight off the one-two punch of hop bitterness and rampant metallic off-flavour.
No blueberry from the Mosaic or even tropical fruit. Definitely a waste of Mosaic hops, nevermind Idaho 7 and Lemondrop.
A chaotic mess of a build for an ostensible IPA. Tastes like an over-aggressive pale ale at best. I'm not a fan of this one at all.
OVERALL: A hop assault with no regard for balance, Experimental IPA (2017) is squarely in the Green Flash / Stone camp of IPA brewing...aggressive for aggression's sake, bitter for bitterness' sake, and anything but delicately or carefully executed. Uninspired fare that fails to showcase its hops well to any extent. Some of the worst work from Upslope in recent memory, and probably the first to suffer from overt metallic off-flavour. If I didn't know this was just released in the last couple weeks, I'd wonder if I'd gotten a can that had sat on shelves for ages in light and heat. Difficult to drink given its scraping mouthfeel and off-puttingly metallic taste.
D (2.18) / NOT RECOMMENDED
***
06.02.17 2nd impression from another can:
Oddly dry for an IPA, but the tropical fruit flavour is better than my previous review gave the beer credit for. Medium-bodied and somewhat refreshing, but not dialed-in or well balanced. Metallic taint does drag it down, but I don't find it as ruinous as my last review contended...maybe there's variation across cans or maybe I'm just full of shit (I tend towards the latter).
Not a great IPA, but not as poorly executed as my last review suggested. Certainly forgettable.
C- / BELOW AVERAGE
***
06.05.17 impression from another can:
Has an obvious malt bend to it, betraying the fundamental conventions of the style. Hop profile is disinteresting.
Drinkable for what it is (which is to say a badly executed pale ale at best) but far from remarkable.
C- / BELOW AVERAGE
May 27, 20176.4% ABV. Ingredients: snowmelt, malt, mosaic hops, Idaho 7 hops, lemondrop hops, yeast.
APPEARANCE: Clear pale copper body of good vibrance. Clean, filtered, enticing. No yeast/lees are visible within.
Head occupies ~60% of the glass. Off-white in colour. Frothy and full. Soft, fluffy, and inviting. Head retention is good - ~8 minutes. Leaves nice lacing on the sides of the glass as the head recedes.
AROMA: Caramalt and faint candy-like sweetness. No subtle blueberry from the Mosaic. Faint indistinct tropical fruit aromatics. Fruity more than anything, with some subsidiary floral hop character. No pine, juicy citrus, resins, herbal character, or grapefruit here. Pale malt sweetness seems to keep any hop bitterness in check.
It's a pretty timid tame aroma. Coupled with its meagre 6.40% ABV, that makes me suspect the "India Pale Ale" categorization is more marketing than reality...this suggests a pale ale.
Aromatic intensity is average.
TASTE & TEXTURE: Scratchy, dry, coarse, and parching/dragging on the finish...in short, the mouthfeel is terrible. Not the smooth, wet, light-bodied, refreshing texture one would hope for in an IPA (or a pale ale). Stale, medium-bodied, well-carbonated. Not oily, gushed, hot, boozy, or astringent. Certainly harsh.
Metallic off-flavour runs rampant throughout. Not that the beer would have been balance otherwise...hop bitterness scrapes the palate even before the abysmal third act, assaulting the drinker with hops but offering little in the way of flavour. When I search, I find some generic indistinct fruity hop flavour and some floral hop flavour. Pale malts comprise the backbone, but can't fight off the one-two punch of hop bitterness and rampant metallic off-flavour.
No blueberry from the Mosaic or even tropical fruit. Definitely a waste of Mosaic hops, nevermind Idaho 7 and Lemondrop.
A chaotic mess of a build for an ostensible IPA. Tastes like an over-aggressive pale ale at best. I'm not a fan of this one at all.
OVERALL: A hop assault with no regard for balance, Experimental IPA (2017) is squarely in the Green Flash / Stone camp of IPA brewing...aggressive for aggression's sake, bitter for bitterness' sake, and anything but delicately or carefully executed. Uninspired fare that fails to showcase its hops well to any extent. Some of the worst work from Upslope in recent memory, and probably the first to suffer from overt metallic off-flavour. If I didn't know this was just released in the last couple weeks, I'd wonder if I'd gotten a can that had sat on shelves for ages in light and heat. Difficult to drink given its scraping mouthfeel and off-puttingly metallic taste.
D (2.18) / NOT RECOMMENDED
***
06.02.17 2nd impression from another can:
Oddly dry for an IPA, but the tropical fruit flavour is better than my previous review gave the beer credit for. Medium-bodied and somewhat refreshing, but not dialed-in or well balanced. Metallic taint does drag it down, but I don't find it as ruinous as my last review contended...maybe there's variation across cans or maybe I'm just full of shit (I tend towards the latter).
Not a great IPA, but not as poorly executed as my last review suggested. Certainly forgettable.
C- / BELOW AVERAGE
***
06.05.17 impression from another can:
Has an obvious malt bend to it, betraying the fundamental conventions of the style. Hop profile is disinteresting.
Drinkable for what it is (which is to say a badly executed pale ale at best) but far from remarkable.
C- / BELOW AVERAGE
Reviewed by Beaver13 from Colorado
2.92/5 rDev -22.5%
look: 4 | smell: 2 | taste: 3 | feel: 4 | overall: 3
2.92/5 rDev -22.5%
look: 4 | smell: 2 | taste: 3 | feel: 4 | overall: 3
12 oz can, best by 7/15/17. Pours slightly hazy amber gold with a big frothy whitehead that retains well and leaves some lacing.
The aroma is sweet biscuit malt with green onion/garlic hops.
The flavor is sweet biscuit malt with some fruit and green resiny peppery hops. The mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with smooth carbonation.
Overall, a decent IPA that is better than the sum of its parts.
May 19, 2017The aroma is sweet biscuit malt with green onion/garlic hops.
The flavor is sweet biscuit malt with some fruit and green resiny peppery hops. The mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with smooth carbonation.
Overall, a decent IPA that is better than the sum of its parts.
Rated by rkarimi from Colorado
4.06/5 rDev +7.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
4.06/5 rDev +7.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
5-10
May 11, 2017
Reviewed by williamphelps from Colorado
4.42/5 rDev +17.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
4.42/5 rDev +17.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
Plenty of nice lacing into a thin head with some foaminess. Color is a bright brown orange. Nose is medium minus intensity of malt, lemon, lime, musty hops; pleasant though mild. Palate is medium to medium plus intensity with musty dank hoppiness, pine needles, citrus, cherry jam, caramel, rye bread; starts mildly bitter and grows to medium plus but then finishes mildly bitter with citrus. Body is medium and pretty crisp with just some resins stickiness on the finish. Carbonation is very pleasant and tongue tingling. Pros nice lacing, bitter, good complexity on palate, nice light body. Cons are mild nose, pretty dank hoppinesss, sticky finish. 90/100
May 11, 2017
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