Thirsty Miner American IPA
Rhinelander Brewing Company

This is an awful awful beer. I don't even understand how they can say it's an IPA. Picked up a six pack at Woodman's grocery store for $3.99. I thought oh my god A six-pack for only $3.99. well in this case you certainly do get what you pay for. It doesn't even taste anything like an IPA. I know some of the reviews use the word "drinkable". Makes me wonder what they have been drinking other than this. It's horrible!

Poured from a cab into a pint glass. Pours orange red with a small white head. Smells of grassy and citrus hops. Tastes of citrus hops but the grain is not quite complementary. Beer is light bodied and easy drinking. Overall, a slightly above average beer.

Single 12-ounce can copped from St. Cloud Liquors in West Orange. Pours a golden, effervescent hue with moderate frothing. Pungent aroma replete with notes of citrus and grapefruit. Similar overall flavor profile. Not bad.

Dark Amber color quick disapating foam head. Pleasant Hoppy taste. Tastes like beer not water. Very drinkable and a great price to boot. I wish the head lasted a litttle longer but thats just a personal preference. Pleasure to support a small local/regional brewery.

 

Getting back to basics when it comes to the American IPA, a classically brewed hop bomb of a beer rolls out of the Rhinelander Brewing Company with no frills, no gadgetry and no fuss.

Simply named Thirsty Miner American IPA, the nearly bright copper gold beer teems with active carbonation to fuel a loose and frothy cap. Peppery, fruity and sprucy to the nose, the hop centric beer starts off first with a dry malt sweetness that provides impressions of graham cracker with caramel, honey and nutty nuances.

But once the beer pops onto the middle palate, its the old school flavors of orange peel and grapefruit that provide a fruit forward taste to overshadow the waning malts and to overthrow a moderately floral upstart. Then trending spicy with hop resins, a bitterness builds through a taste of freshly torn pine needles and a dry grassiness.

Medium bodied but trending lighter and drier, the expressive carbonation facilitates a dry finish with an acute carbonic bite. Slightly seltzer-like, the herbal, grassy and piney bitterness far outlasts anything malt or sweet related into an exteded aftertaste of hop vegetation.

 

Almost clear, orange-amber, heavy carbonation with excellent lacing retention. Unbalanced bitterness, sticky to the palate, and lingering citrus-rind finish. One is enough for me, but don't knock till you tried it. Worth the experience.