Lone Bison IPA
Ribstone Creek Brewery

Lone Bison fills my glass slightly hazy, and a burnished copper color. The head is packed, slightly rocky, and cream colored.
Taking a sniff, Lone Bison’s aroma is pleasantly hop forward. From the hops I get aromas of grapefruit pith and hints of pine needle. The bready aroma of pale malts lend support, giving a platform for the rest of this IPA’s aromas. Right about then I pick up just a little bit of caramel, providing hints of sweetness before leading into the beer’s finish. As expected, citrus and pine needle return to finish the set, showing pleasant subtlety instead of the usual bold assertiveness.
Lone Bison IPA is medium bodied, enjoying a gentle carbonation. Lone Bison’s enjoys up front flavors of caramel mixed with freshly risen bread dough and hints of mineral. These flavors combine and build towards a rounded center, before moving on to an assertively hoppy finish. The finish is exactly as hoppy and bitter as it needs to be, given the style. Again I get citrus and grapefruit pith. Then there’s just a bit of peppercorn bitterness before it all fades into the next sip.
It’s tasty, balanced, and bitter. The bitter finish is assertive without overpowering. All the other flavors compliment each other nicely, giving a beer that is an overall decent example of the style.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

355ml can poured into tulip 22/3/16

A clear golden copper with some fine sediment being moved around by slow tiny bubbles that pop up from everywhere, thumbs width of dense foam has great retention leaving thick partial rings deep down the glass

S sweet orange reminds me of Minute Maid OJ, lychee juice, soft caramel, some spruce, rind I can't place, some floral notes, smells juicy and I like it

T still juicy, pine, lemon rind, grapefruit juice, lots of caramel, little malty compared to the nose

M lighter bodied but bubbles fluff it up, has a sharp bitter bite, a little gritty and has a dry rind finish

O I downed a few cans in no time so that says something, its drinkable for the Alc% and bitterness and fairly well rounded

After a couple of average beers from these guys my hope is now growing after trying this and the porter.

 

Currently on tap at Industry (a cool new pub in Medicine Hat) .
Darker than some I've tried, but has the slight haziness I usually associate with well crafted examples of the style. Definite grapefruit and pine aroma from the hops but I detect some sweet maltiness as well. I also found it to have a cool mango sweet/tart edge.
Nice balance between hop and malt making it taste closer to it's English ancestors than some of it's continental brothers.
If I was to compare it to an IPA I've had recently I'd say Tree Brewing's Hop Head...which IMO isn't bad company to keep..come to Medicine Hat in February and give it a try...

 

Beer pours from a can into my pint glass a kind of orange-ish copper. It's quite hazy, befitting its unfiltered nature, and is capped by two or so fingers of loose, bubbly foam that slowly recede to a finger and then some islands while leaving a lot of lacing.

Smell is a kind of farmy, vegetal, almost manure-like funk--which is actually much nicer than it sounds. Lots of bitter grapefruit pith and pine. Fairly astringent. Some cut grass, hay, a touch of biscuity malt, maybe even some faint sourness? Hmm.

Taste is surprisingly well-balanced, considering the can's reported 70 IBU content. A good dense malt backbone is augmented by a serious dose of pine needles, pine resin, and some citrus (though the citrus evokes more grapefruit-from-concentrate than fresh grapefruit). Again, earthy, farmy, almost vegetal. Perfumey on the taste more than the smell, which is unusual. Bitter orchard fruits? This is a really complex, interesting IPA. Carbonation is moderate, and the body is full without sitting too heavy.

A really nice effort from a small-town brewery that's quickly making a claim to being one of my favourite in the province of Alberta. Don't know that I could drink more than one of these in a session, given its heft and the interplay of a lot of different elements, but it's a complex, interesting, likeable beer.