IPA
Tailgate Beer

The can calls it Session IPA
(Served in a dimple mug)
This beer pours a nice slightly hazy bright copper body with a thick lumpy cream that has some good lacing with each sip. The aroma of soft green hops has some mint like qualities and some more woody hop flavor in the finish. The taste has a sweet toffee malt note that takes on more of a crystal malt flavor as it opens and the finish has a slightly pungent yet soft hop flavor.

This is a nice easy drinking IPA but the malt sweetness is a bit stronger than the hop profile with is more pungency that hop flavor.

Here's another beer I thought I reviewed long ago, but alas, it does not seem to be so. Anyways, man, at the outset, this looked like something awesome: a San Diego ipa, the name tailgate, these are a few of my favorite things. Oh how disappointed I would find myself.

Pours a soapy light yellow with a white head that is poor at retention, just a thin 1/5" light film afterwards. Aroma imparts like zero aroma hops, zero dry hopping, you're just left with that aluminum smell and at best, a slight bitter hop impression.

Taste, eeeghad, what is this? It has pronounced bitterness, but like, no hop flavor. Even the maltiness of the beer has an off flavor, too much bitter caramel to it. I can't believe I can't even pull grapefruit out as a hop flavor, its just straight metallic bitterness, the ol suck on a penny ipa. This is one of the worst ipas I've ever had. Gives Kennebunkport a run for its money.

 

 

Not an IPA...terrible!! Malt profile dominates and has awful undesired flavors. This brewery should be ashamed for putting this out.

 

This is a fruity IPA. Pineapple and cider turn to tangerine at the end. Good amount of maltiness, considering the relatively low ABV. I like this one a lot and for $1.69 for 24 oz, it's a no-brainer. Cheers!

 

The can looked interesting with the load of hops in the back of the truck. So I tried it. Eh, nothing to write home about. I'll finish the six-pack, but I won't buy it again. It does have a think, frothy head that maintains for a fairly long time, the lacing is interesting if you are into abstract art caused by beer lacing, and it does bubble quite a bit. All in all, I was disappointed. I kind of wish I hadn't started with this sixer tonight, but hey, it's still beer, so here we go...

 

 

 

 

 

 

I picked up a can of Tailgate Beer's IPA last week for $1.45 at Boyne Country Provisions. I needed one more beer for my mixed six pack and sine I've never head of this brewery I thought I would give them a chance, so lets see how it goes. No visible canning date. Poured from a 12oz can into a imperial pint glass.

A- The can looks ok, but it's slightly cheesy looking and I don't think it's too eye catching. It poured a very hazy darker golden color that took on more of a golden amber color when held to the light with a about a fingers worth of slightly off white head that died down to a thin ring that stayed till the end and it left some rings of patchy lacing behind. This was a nice looking IPA, but i wish it had a little more head.

S- The aroma starts off with a higher amount of sweetness has that has a weird rock candy like aroma and it's followed by the malts being the first to show up and they impart a slightly grainy, stale malt, caramel malt and higher amount of sweet malt like aromas. Up next comes an apple cider like aroma. This beer didn't have a good aroma, there were no hops and the stale and sweet malts seem to dominate it.

T- The taste seems to be very similar to the aroma and it starts off with a higher amount of sweetness that still has that weird rock candy like flavor to it and it's followed by the malts which impart the same crappy aspects that they did in the aroma with sweet and stale malts seeming to stick out the most along with a good amount of caramel malts in the back ground. Up next comes the weird apple juice flavors that sticks out just a little more than it did in the aroma. On the finish there's no hops and just a very light amount of bitterness that's hardly noticeable with some more sweetness and it had a stale malt, sweet malt and apple juice like aftertaste. This wasn't a good tasting IPA at all, there were no hops and the malt base was a mess.

M- A little smooth, not clean, a little cloying, a little sticky, medium bodied with a medium amount of carbonation. The mouthfeel wasn't that great, a IPA shouldn't be sticky like this.

Overall I thought this beer sucked and I thought it was a bad example of the style, it was just bad all around, there were no hops to speak of and the malt base was just one big mess, it didn't make for an enjoyable beer. This beer didn't have good drinkability, it was a little smooth, not clean, a little cloying, a little sticky, a little filling, and the taste did not do a good job of holding my attention, half the can is enough for me and I don't think I would want to suffer through drinking a full one. What I like the most about this beer was the appearance, it was the only aspect that wasn't bad and it was the only aspect that was true to style. What I liked the least about this beer was the aroma and taste, they were both bad all around and there was no bright side to any of it. I wouldn't buy this beer again and I would for sure turn this down and I would tell people to steer clear of it since it's just a bad beer all around. All in all I absolutely disliked this beer, I don't like to hate anything, but this might be it. I don't know how a brewer can make a beer like this and have no problem releasing it to the public as an IPA, it shouldn't be released as any style, it just bad, end of story. This beer made for a bad first impression of TaIlgate Beer and I don't think I'll be trying more of their beers anytime soon. I'm pretty sure this is the worst IPA I've ever had. This one needs some major work guys, in fact you might wanna throw away this recipe and go back to the drawing board, better luck next time.