Ol’ Loco IPA
Borderlands Brewing Co.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A steady pour from the growler into my large Tripel Karmeliet tulip produces a ½ finger thick, pale tan colored head. The beer is a murky looking amber color, but shows a touch clearer when held up to the light with a pale amber hue that is still quite hazed. The aroma is quite hoppy with ample dank herbal hop notes, a bit citrus component (that reminds me of ripe tangelo zest and lychee) as well as a solid pine like character and even an aggressive, green, somewhat raw hop character towards the finish. The huge, aggressively ripe citrus and fruit character seems to play the leading role in the nose with the tangelo zest and lychee being most noticeable, but supporting notes of juicy-fruit gum, tropical fruit notes, candied peach / apricot notes and lots of fruity, essential citrus oil like character all play a role to. There is a touch of malt character noticeable in the nose, it clearly plays a supporting role, but a touch of cracker like malt comes through every once in a while, as does a touch of dried hay like grain. There is a certain, though light, dusty quality to the nose that has perhaps a yeast like aroma; this is fairly light, but diffuses the perfect focus on the bright hop character that would otherwise be here. As the beer warms up the nose picks up woody, almost oak like spiciness that leans towards woody black pepper, and perhaps even a hint of cedar, along with the more typical pine character.<p>

Hugely bitter up front, this get green, raw, astringent and even harsh as it flows across the palate; wow, it is like chewing on hops, vegetal matter and lupulin glands all mixed together. The beer is actually quite light bodied and doesn’t have much in the way of residual malt sweetness; this of course really tends to accentuate the harsh, astringent hop character and mute the bright citrus & fruit character that is found in the aroma. The carbonation is quite light from the growler, though I don’t miss it all that much here. The finish has a touch of yeasty, murky / trub like flavors to it that linger a bit, but these are only just noticeable underneath the omnipresent, raw hop astringency that really sticks to the palate. Pine like flavors, to the point of seeming to chew on pine sap and fresh pine needles, expressively explode on the palate and are backed by a lingering, underlying, yet pervasive herbal dank character. Subtler hop notes of menthol, and an almost oak like woodiness and spiciness. As the beer warms up the bright citrus character becomes more noticeable as the beer first hits the palate, but this is quickly wiped out by the aggressive, harsh hoppiness that dominates and then lingers on the palate.<p>

For the aroma, a touch better fermentation management and conditioning is required, but the flavor is just over the top astringent and full of green-vegetal hop flavors that just shouldn’t be in a beer. As a certified hop-head, I don’t mind drinking this beer, but I can see this being an undrinkable hop mess for a lot of, otherwise craft beer, folks. I do like that an attempt was made at an aggressively hoppy beer, this is certainly a world apart from the established Tucson breweries in its hop use, but it has gone a touch too far. The hop character is way too harsh and focused on the green / vegetal side of the hop spectrum in the flavor; My guess is that something is off with the dry hopping for this beer (perhaps it was too long, at too warm of a temp, or maybe they actually over-hopped it, which I scarcely would have thought possible for a brewery in Tucson). If they can get the rest of it dialed in this will be quite heavenly; as the aroma is close to being quite awesome. I still can’t get over how raw and hoppy the flavor is, this beer is definitely too hoppy and unbalanced, even for a super hoppy IPA; from a balance perspective, this is the most aggressively hoppy beer I can remember having. They have captured what it is like to chew on a hop, unfortunately as anyone that has done it can attest to, this is just not the most pleasant experience in the world. Definitely a beer to revisit, after this has hopefully been dialed in a bit more.