Hop Bursted IPA
Blue Pants Brewery

12oz can - no date - poured into a squat ale pint at 40°F.

Pours a fairly hazy deep gold with a finger of bone white head that recedes fairly quickly to a thick collsr and film. Tons of slow nucleation.

Nose: Fairly muted aroma, but the beer is also a bit cold. The overall aroma strikes me as one of these sort of West Coast/New England-style hybrids. Some classic PNW hops lend some citrus first and foremost with a surprising amount of lemon, florals, and a faint earthy pine note. The malt is quite pale, but I can absolutely detect some darker caramel (crystal) malt. Edit: Nothing really changes once the beer warms, besides perhaps a greater hint of lemon.

Palate: The beer greets the palate dry, with a very restrained malt base. There's still a touch of toasty caramel malt, but it's primarily pale and flaky. A substantial alpha acid bitterness comes on early - a sign of some pretty aggressive boil hopping. With this bitterness comes a ton of citrus - tangerine, grapefruit, lemon zest, and a bit of sappy pine, which all get a whisked away very quickly immediately after the swallow, which brings a bold finish of biting resinous bitterness, some white grapefruit pith, and a ton of boiled hop floral flavours. Bitterness hangs on and just lingers throughout the fairly dry finish.

Mouthfeel/Body: Medium-light in body, very crisp. There's little going on in terms of texture, but there is nothing wrong with that. Effervescence is lively, with slightly bigger bubbles, giving a slightly soda-like feel. Very little stickiness, and a touch of hop resin lingers in the finish. There's actually a fair bit of dry-hop acidity in here, which brightens the overall feel.

Overall: This is a perfectly enjoyable beer. There are no glaring flaws, other than the fact that it's fairly simple and restrained, lacking any and all hop complexity. However, sometimes you just want an IPA that satisfies the craving for hops, without having to crack a special can or bottle and make memory of it. It's an every day beer. A hike in the woods beer. A day at the beach beer. A Fourth of July barbecue with the family, hanging out by the pool beer. If you drop this one in the pool, it's okay, because you can just grab another. It is pretty firmly bitter, which some may not enjoy (I personally do), but if bitterness isn't an issue, then this is just a perfectly good beer that's meant to drink. It won't win any awards, but it will hit the spot.

NICE BLEND OF HOPS GIVES THIS IPA A SPECIAL TASTE

 

 

 

On tap at the brewery.
3.75/2.5/3.25/3.25/3
Hazy gold. It smells skunky. I'd hoped this foretold fields of glorious hops, but it actually is just kinda gross.
It's an incredibly bitter, overbearing sort of a beer. Herbal and earthy, I'm getting...Simcoe? Chinook? Williamette?? Even switching back from the DIPA, the hops stick to my tongue and burn bitterly like eternal hellfire. Impressive in its own right, but not my speed right now.

EDIT 16 September 2015:
Poured from a 12 ounce bottle into a pint glass. Bottled 20 July 2015.
3.75/4.5/3.5/3.25/3
The big difference is that is smells fantastic. Dense, stonefruity, and fabulously hoppy. The initial taste is apricot, but it fades fast into a murky, plasticy bitterness. This is WAY better than the draft version, and I'm going to update the smell to reflect that.