India Pale Ale - Amarillo
The Kernel Brewery

330ml brown glass bottle. 6.8% ABV.
L: Hazy, orange/gold with one finger of long-lasting, bright white, cream head and sheets of lacing.
S: Spicy, like lavender honey.
T: Orange citrus and pine. Zesty, woody and spicy. Medium bitterness.
F: Medium body, moderate carbonation and a long, very dry finish.
O: An earthy and bitter AIPA. Single hop makes it a little blunt, maybe?

This was 7.0%.

 

 

A: Cloudy orange (I like cloudy) with a nice off-white head.
S: Rindy orange marmalade. Particularly rindy.
T: A lovely earthy/rindyness with a nice fizzy pop on the tongue. Holy shit, this is the first tasty pale ale I've had from this brewery. In fact it's insane. Orange marmalade is the flavour. Dry, but sweetness is assumed. Can't emphasise the rindyness of this beer. It's nuts. This beer is all about the mad earthy rindyness.
O: Okay, after having had half a dozen quite boring offerings from this brewery, this is not only the best I've had from them, but by a mile the best AIPA I've had. Nothing has come close.

 

 

 

 

 

A 330ml bottle with a BB of June 2013. Picked up a little while back from Trembling Madness in York.

Poured into a Delirium chalice. Bottle conditioned. A hazy golden-amber hue with plentiful fine sediment and good carbonation. Yields a large head of creamy white foam that lasts for a few minutes before reducing to a surface layer. Nice lacing. Aroma of juicy hops with notes of grapefruit, orange peel, white grape, melon, citrus and a raw leafy character. This is underpinned by caramel malt, earthy yeast, stewed hops and a hint of warming alcohol in the background.

Tastes of intensely fruity hops with a powerful bitter finish. Notes of grapefruit, orange peel, citrus, white grape, melon, subtle grass/hay, caramel malt, earthy yeast and stewed hops. Well-attenuated, with a touch of hot booze in the background and a strident bitterness upon swallowing. Mouthfeel is smooth, dry and tingly, with pleasant carbonation and good body for the style. The hop oils tantalise the palate. Rather astringent, with an aftertaste of bitter stewed hops, fruity notes and earthy yeast.

Very nice - once again an instant classic from Kernel. The fruity citrus notes provided by Amarillo are overwhelming. Looks great; the aroma and flavour are superbly hoppy while remaining well balanced. Lovely body with fantastic texture. Excellent - definitely worth sampling if it appears on your radar.

 

 

Purchased at the Kernel Brewery in London recently; bottle-conditioned in a 330ml brown bottle, bottled on 25/02/2013, BB 25/06/2013, served cool in Tripel Karmaliet’s branded stemmed flower bulb-shaped goblet.

A: pours a dark orangey amber hue, murky, coming with very light carbonation and a well-lasting creamy off-white head.
S: like all other IPAs or PAs by this small brewery, the nose is predominantly “raw-ish” and sharply fruity-hoppy, boasting fragrance of creamy fruit esters in parallel with assertive fruity aroma as of passion-fruits, sweet grapefruits & oranges, plus a touch of ripe guava and salted-sweet dried hawthorn fruits. The malt body is apparently thicker than a Pale Ale, supposedly using a slightly higher percentage of crystal malts? The sweetness is rendered more complex by the yeasty work on the backbone, pleasantly so.
T: clean on the palate and yet also creamy on the carbonation, the flavour is initially citric-fruity and creamy on the pale and crystal malts, with a wee touch of yeasty sourness, then ensued by a soothing wave of moderately tangy and resinous juicy hops, deepening tannic bitterness and dry-hopped fragrance of Amarillo, leading towards an interestingly balanced, dry and clean finish where the bitterness lends a lingering impact and not in a rather harsh or bold way, while the complex tropical fruity elements also provide pleasant undertones to enjoy at the rear of the palate.
M&O: the carbonation is quite simply “perfect” as far as my own preference is concerned, that it’s creamy, mildly effervescent, matching the rich flavour profile and a balanced body all too well. This is a very successfully bottle-conditioned hoppy ale made as, again, a one-off brew by the experimental and flat-structured brewing team at The Kernel. I like the experimental concept, although I also aspire to see them keeping their best guinea pigs as permanent offerings.