Royal Pride IPA
Royal Oak Brewery

Poured can into pint glass

A: Semi-transparent, deep gold/light amber color. Has a small head, but it lingers.
S: A bit of a mild citrus smell, but more than a little bit of a funky smell.
T: Milder hop flavor than expected, but still there. Some citrus notes, and a slightly funky finish finish.
F: Light, but not too watery. A bit of carbonation.
O: Pretty good, but the funkiness turns me off a bit. I'd get it again, but it won't be a regular.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This beer was served from the tap at Royal Oak Brewery in Royal Oak, Michigan. It arrived in a generic pint glass, glowing a golden tawny coloring. It held a two finger head of cream colored bubbles, showing good retention, and leaving sheets of lacing around the glass. A thick haze permeated the clarity, while no sediment was noted. Carbonation appeared to be light. The aroma was sweet, with apricot, nectary and citric hops, freshly cut grass, standard pale malts, earth, and mineral. With warmth a significant note of burnt popcorn came forward. Our first impression was that the bitterness of the hops through the flavoring didn’t quite meld as much as you would like with the malty base, and the watery wash through the end made things seem a bit flat. As we sipped, the taste opened with foamy plastics, bittered pale grain, lighter brown malt sweetness, citric rind bitterness, mild grassy hops, and lemon hand wipes. The middle came to a peak with more grassy and herbal hop bite, light florals, warmed iron, and adjuncty, corny grain. Washing through the finish was sea saltiness, more pale malts, mineral water, light alcohols, and flashes of white sugar. The aftertaste breathed of bittered lemon rind, more gritty earthy hops, sulfur, graphite, white flour, juicy bubblegum, and dried yeastiness. The body was light to medium, and the carbonation was on the lighter side. The mouth was left wetly coated, with citric rind astringency all down the palate. Each sip afforded nice slurp, froth, cream, and decently robust finishing pop. That said, the sip felt a bit flat and watered through at times. The abv was appropriate, and the beer drank easily.

Overall, what we enjoyed most about this beer was its aroma. In the end, the smell was much more appealing than the taste. Through the nose the hops did give more thick and syrupy hoppiness, with good sweet and citric freshness to sit aside the weaker pale malt base. That nutty spice of the malts, however, did help keep things intriguing. The taste, on the other hand, was watered and less robust to follow, although the hops did remain relatively juicy enough to insure things drank consistently.