Plan B IPA
5 Seasons Westside

 

Pours a quite hazy orange with a tightly beaded almost creamy head. Smells quite citrusy and slightly earthy, with some pine notes cropping up as well. Fairly mellow but nicely delineated. The taste is quite balanced, with bitter pine, earth, and citrus, and with a fair dose of malt. Still, the hops are a bit more prominent than the malt here, which is as it should be. Extremely smooth on the palate- no backbite at all, like say, Ruination has. Very drinkable, a nice hot weather IPA.

Congrats to Crawford and the 5 Seasons crew on finally getting Westside up and running, with this being the first beer from the new location.

Pours a bright and very cloudy orangish amber with a small bubbly white head that recedes to a small ring and leaves spotty lacing. As Greg mentioned, it looks very much like a cask pour.

The aroma is full of hops, all kinds of hops. There's an initial sweet citrusy blast of oranges and grapefruit that seems to give way to some floral pine aromas as well. The malts are there but take a back seat.

The taste is almost as hoppy but is more balanced than the aroma would suggest. It's got the same juicy citrus hop kick up front before the sweet caramel malts come in to form a solid backbone. The finish is fairly astringent with pine and citrus hops lingering through the finish.

The mouthfeel is medium to full bodied and very slick with low carbonation for the style.

I definitely enjoyed this and I think the extra balance from the malts in the taste really make this one a top notch IPA.

Pours an unusually opaque orange-copper color with a one-finger off-white head. The head recedes into a wispy layer on top with large bubbles ringing the glass. It actually looks similar to a cask pour.

Smells of all kinds of hops - mild floral scents mixed with stronger citrus and pine notes all backed by what smells like a combination of pale and caramel malts.

Tastes similar to how it smells, though the hops aren't quite as intense as the smell led me to believe. Pale malts with hints of caramel malt flavors kick things off and are joined by citrus and pine hop flavors. The ending is mildly bitter.

Mouthfeel is good. It's got a nice thickness with soft carbonation.

Drinkability is very good. I had no problem finishing my glass and could easily have a few of these.

Overall this is a good IPA but it tasted a bit too muddled to be great. Still, very much worth a try.