Dear Yakima
Tree House Brewing Company

 

 

An autumnal, zippy wet hop IPA that is the closest thing I've had to 'old school' from Tree House -- amber/copper body with pretty minimal haze, a heavy two-row/caramel malt profile, and that west coast-y citrusy dank hop character. Not really getting much tropical notes

81/100

 

 

 

16 oz can.

Pours a cloudy (yes, cloudy) golden amber color with a 2 finger creamy off-white head. Good head retention. Leaves a damn wall of lacing. People are gonna be mad about this appearance but it's closer to something like NEBCO or even Hill Farmstead. It's a great looking beer.

Aromas of grapefruit, orange pith, pineapple, and pine. Lots of grainy malts with a touch of honey.

The flavor has a ton of citrus, pineapple, pine, grains, and light cracked pepper. Floral and spicy.

The feel is medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Creamy and smooth with a sharp hop bite.

Overall, this is a really nice IPA. Definitely closer to a West Coast style IPA. Very citrusy and floral and exceptionally well-balanced.

Pours clear, gold in color with one half inch head. Taste is pine, crusty bread, honey and citrus. Medium light body, moderate carbonation, slightly bitter. Different from their usual hazy ipas, this is a good west coast style without a bunch of the hop bite. Would not get on the regular but solid.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a fresh hop IPA from Tree House. The can states that hops harvested in/near Yakima are flash frozen, then shipped east and immediately used to make this beer.

It's not a typical TH IPA at all. While not clear, it's also not particularly hazy, and has a much darker, redder color than TH's typical style. It's pretty and looks the part for a classic IPA. The head is impressive and lingers well.

The aromas are really nice here. Very floral and citrus forward with a little caramel, too. None of the tropical notes one expects from a New England IPA, but also not as piney/resinous as a WCIPA. It treads a clear middle ground between these styles.

I taste a lot of citrus and caramel. It's an extremely drinkable beer and goes down fast. It's more bitter than you'd expect from TH, but not nearly as bitter as you might think based on how the beer looks. It's got more caramel sweetness than I expected, too. From a fresh hopped beer, I really wanted more piney and resiny flavors than this beer delivered. It's good, but not memorable.

Overall this is a very solid beer, but not one I'd buy again from TH. At over $4/can, it doesn't do a lot that beers at half its price don't also do. I'm glad to see this brewery producing an IPA in this style, but I don't think they fully nailed it with this effort. More bitterness, more pine needed.

Canned 11/02/21, it pours cloudy dark orange color that borders on brown, with a foamy 2 finger thick eggshell colored head that faded very slowly and left real nice foamy lacing clinging to the glass. Smells of tangerine, lemon zest, grapefruit, orange peel, biscuit, grassy hops, tropical fruit and herbal notes. It starts off as a west coast IPA but finished like a good Tree House brew with strong citrus.

Tastes like sweet toasted grains and biscuit up front, followed by caramel, grapefruit, orange peel, lemon zest, tea leaf, piney notes, citrus like a clementine or tangerine, peppery spices and wheat that resembles bread. Definitely a throwback beer which reminded me of the days when West Coast IPA’s were top dog.

Pretty opaque, just a bit of light makes it through but can't really see through it. The color is a departure from the usual NE yellow haze (what I feel a lot of TH beers look like) and more towards the old school IPA look, darker, redder, deeper brown rust. Just slightly off white head with sticky lacing. A bit of sweet malt on the nose, then taken over by dank wet hop. This is what you'd expect, wet pine and citrus hop flavor. Really nice hop character, very resiny, sticky. Still slightly more "pillowy" than a usual old school IPA, which is the main "Tree House" character I pick up here.

 

Who doesn’t love the Pacific Northwest? It is a hop bomb but a departure from the NEIPAs Treehouse is so great at producing. Reminds me of the microbrews along the Columbia River Gorge. Dark in color and a resin like finish. I can feel the hops in my sinuses after just one.