Sequoia
Tree House Brewing Company

 

 

Pours a clear rich amber color with a fluffy light tan head that blankets the glass with big splotches of lacing. Gorgeous Red IPA.

The nose features citrus aromas of tangerine and grapefruit, with some resiny pine and a nice caramalt note.

The resiny pine is more prominent on the taste, and provides a nice bitterness that is complemented by the citrus flavors and balanced by the caramalt. Wow.

The mouthfeel is medium and crushingly dry. I always enjoy TH’s non-hazies, and this beer is an excellent example of why that’s the case.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sampling a 16 oz can, lightly chilled and poured into my .5L dimple mug. Date Stamp is Spring 2024.
The beer pours a clear amber to chestnut color with a dense creamy khaki colored head of about 0.5 cm.
This foam fades to a sturdy edge layer and some wispy islands soon after the pour.
The aroma is some citrus and grapefruit rindyness with a decent hit of sticky pine too. Seems like a WC IPA to my nose. There is a little balancing bready and caramel malt, but hops lead the nose.
First sip reveals a light to medium body with fine tingly carbonation and a fairly smooth mouthfeel. The beer drinks pretty easy and is emptying from my glass with little effort.
Flavor is some brief caramel and then hops kick in with some grapefruit and sticky sap that lingers after each sip. Little bit of bitterness too.
Feels sticky on the finish, which I didnt expect. Never any alcohol hints, even at 7.2%.
Nice to have a non-hazy IPA from TreeHouse with a different mix of hop profile. Glad to have drank this one!

From the Tree House website: “Sequoia, a Red IPA inspired by the towering trees out west. Sequoia pours a beautiful red hue with a white foam head. It is aggressively hopped with a unique blend of Columbus, Chinook, Nelson, and Simcoe hops. This beer rouses the senses with a rush of orange citrus, sparkling grapefruit, and piney resin. Following behind these snappy aromas are layers of rich caramel and toffee undertones. Unmistakably balanced, complex, and as refreshing as the rarified air found off the beaten path.” Very nice red ale .

Sequoia - labeled a Red IPA from Tree House. 7.2% ABV. No canning date, only stamped Spring 2024. Side note - come on, Tree House, there's no excuse not to date-stamp your hoppy beer. That said, nobody should call February spring, so unless they're being tricky, this beer is less than ten days old.

It pours a vivid auburn-red color with an ample white head. Nice lacing remains in the glass as the head fades and the beer warms. It's a thick looking beer; certainly not turbid like a NEIPA, but but with some haze hiding behind the red color. A little light passes through the beer at the rim of the glass.

I smell muted pine and grapefruit along with some toasted vanilla and toffee. The hop aromas are quite restrained, especially compared to other TH beers.

The flavor profile is quite balanced and much more malt-focused than expected, with grapefruit, mango, and a little pine turning quickly into caramel and vanilla notes. The can says there's Columbus, Chinook, and Simcoe in here (along with Nelson), but there's not much of the resiny bitterness I tend to associate with those hops. Instead malt flavors dominate, with the hops adding some citrus over the top but not really singing the way they do in most IPAs, especially from this brewery.

It's enjoyable, to be sure, but it's not what I expected and I'm real curious to know if it's what the brewers were going for when they came up with the idea for this beer. I was expecting (and hoping for) a big, bitter, piney IPA, something like a TH take on Celebration. Instead this is a well balanced amber ale - with well-crafted, but fairly subdued hoppiness - that in my opinion, has been mislabeled as an IPA. Ma (Tree House's "hoppy amber") is much hoppier than this.

I'm still waiting for Tree House to make a real bitter-bomb WCIPA. Don't buy this looking for that, but if a well crafted amber with nice hoppy notes is what you want, Sequoia will scratch your itch.