Double Red IPA
Mother Earth Brew Co.

Taster at Boise taproom. Dark golden pour, thin covering of off-white head, curtains of lacing. Malty aroma, woody, tea. Taste is malty, light toffee, tannic. A bit dry and sweet, but tasty.

a collaboration with vantage point up north, decent beer in a style we dont see a lot of, no name apparently, weird. nelson, strata, simcoe, and amarillo, i have to say im not getting much nelson, perhaps not best paired with so much malt, but i think the others combine well, and for a big ipa, this is pretty darn balanced, more in the hoppy red space insofar as there is an appreciable difference. amber colored, not too dense or anything, average height off white head from the tap, adequate carbonation. a nose of drier than it looks crystal malts and some nuttiness, autumnal and clean, graham cracker and toast, light caramelization but its cleanly fermented too, hops hit with pine and spice, thus the simcoe and the amarillo that seem to lead this, moderate bitterness increasing to my nose with the temperature, nice fresh fall beer, full character. the flavor is fairly straightforward for something a little unexpected overall as a style, but the beer seems kind of basic, woodsy and northwestern without the fruitiness strata and nelson could potentially bring, less dry hoppy to me, higher alpha than i can smell but still in balance, i like it not being too sweet on the malt side but having plenty of body, good structure here, toasted grain depth, earthy for sure, only a touch sweet, neutral yeast, late pine, juniper, and bitter grapefruit and orange pith, not without some fruity nuance, but not real new wave on the hops to me either. this is objectively good beer, sturdy and well refined, but the hop part of it is unexciting and there is just a prickle of alcohol to it, making it a one and done pint for me, even though i do like it. more than anything its cool to see some new beers at mother earth lately, same old bag of tricks for so long we almost stopped going, but its been picking up lately with the innovation, and this is nice for this time of year. these hops should deliver a little more uniqueness than they do, but its good beer...