Isomer IPA
Burnside Brewing Co.

Taster at loyal legion. Amber with small ring of head. Aroma is caramel and raisins, fruitcake? Taste brings the hops forward to dominate the palate. Malty and dry. Some savory notes, too, mild fruit overtones.

22oz bottle - an IPA (I debated submitting it as a DIPA, but they call it the former), made with Meridian and Ekuanot hops.

This beer pours a murky, medium apricot amber colour, with a near-teeming tower of puffy, loosely foamy, and chunky ecru head, which leaves some decent sudsy chain-link fence lace around the glass as it lazily recedes.

It smells of semi-sweet orange and white grapefruit flesh, gritty and grainy caramel malt, a further muddled tropical fruitiness, and some minor earthy, weedy, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is crackery and grainy caramel malt, a lesser plain breakfast cereal sweetness, mixed domestic citrus rind, a now ephemeral exotic fruity essence, and more understated leafy, musty, and gently perfumed floral verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite overactive, but not biting in its genial frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and mostly smooth, with a wee airy creaminess welling up once things get closer to room temperature. It finishes off-dry, the mixed fruit, even more mixed graininess, and forest floor flora all playing nice and easy with each other.

Overall, this is indeed a rather agreeable and quaffable version of the style (even considering the 16-proof wowee sauce component), as the two input hops have little prior influence on my beer palate. Worthy of checking out, if only for something slightly new in the heady world of IPAs.