El Bandito Loco
Raccoon River Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

Orange color mostly, a little hazy with a decently white and frothy head. The bubbles are a little large, perhaps too expansive. Great lacing, though.

The nose is a major upgrade on the Bandit, with enough power to form a halo around the glass. Lots of citric hops, a little bit of caramel malt.

The flavor was similar, with the Cascade hops making up the lion's share. Definitely some grapefruit and lemon zest in there. Malts are restrained and largely unobtrusive, but to fill out the mouthfeel.

Medium in the mouth, I was pretty cool with everything going on except for a really off flavor sourness that emerges as the beer warms up. The finish is dry, and gets even more puckering later on.

This is really close to a great IPA, but there's just something about the house yeast that is hard to put up with for a long night of drinking and playing pool.

Flawless, glistening peach beneath an eggshell white head of frothycreamy foam. This was one of the best looking brewpubs pours that I've seen. As the beer fell with drinking, I began to see spindly rings of lace forming near the top edge. None of the rings ever faded away and they became fatter and thicker as they marched down the glass. A great look.

The nose was pleasantly hoppy and featured a trio of citrus fruits: grapefruit, lemon and, to some extent, orange. Cascade was far and away the dominant hop, but a few others must have been present as well. The aroma wasn't quite snazzy enough to blow me away, but it was clear that I was dealing with a hopcentric beer.

Will wonders ever cease? Finally, an Iowa brewpub beer that contains an impressive amount of hops and actually has the malt backbone to support them. There was mostly pale malt (I'm guessing) with a little crystal malt (guessing again) for sweetness. Other than flavor, it was also apparent from the mouthfeel that plenty of malt had been used. EBL was medium in heft with a slightly slick, lipsticky finish. It was a pleasure to drink. Check that... gulp.

The flavor profile was comprised of the same three citrus fruits noted in the nose, especially white grapefruit. El Bandito Loco was a classic grapefruit juice cocktail of an IPA. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Amarillo was responsible for the tangerine/orange flavors, although I didn't really appreciate any of the 'tropical' flavors that I usually associate with that particular hop. What began as a snappy finish became noticeably drier as the hop resins began to accumulate on my tongue.

Along with a beautiful commingling of sweet and bitter, I noted a somewhat sour, distracting, off-flavor that I've tasted in this brewpub's beer before. It was barely noticeable here, thanks in large part to the hop barrage. Whatever its origins, it kept the flavor from truly impressive heights. My guess is that the house yeast strain is responsible. If so, a cleaner, more neutral yeast should be used.

El Bandito Loco (The Crazy Bandit) is a highly-hopped version of the standard Raccoon River IPA known as Bandit IPA. The brewer claims 115+ IBUs and I'm not about to question his arithmetic. This beer was a wonderful surprise and exceeded all expectations by a country mile. El Bandito Loco is one of the best Iowa brewpub beers that I've ever had the pleasure to imbibe. Break out the growlers!