Mindbender IPA
Cannonball Creek Brewing Company

 

Draft at brewery. Clear golden with small bubbly head. Hoppy aroma, sharp and pungent. Taste continues with straight up astringency, but still smooth. Bitterness lingers for a while

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Has a Surly overrated taste but doesn't finish as well. Over all the best IPA I HAVE HAD IN COLORADO

 

 

 

 

Pours a beautiful, clear straw yellow with a thin white head that laces. The smell is perfection funky citrus hop. Taste of clean, crisp citrus hop with the funk. Great mouthfeel with malts coming in.

 

On tap at the brewery into a nonic glass.

A-The beer is light in color for the style -- pale golden -- and mostly clear. The head is short and nearly white in color. Retention is pretty good and there is some nice, fine lacing on the glass as I drink. Some active carbonation is visible.

S-The aroma is heavy on the pine, pithy citrus, and spice at first sniff. A nice, sharp, pungent aroma with good (though mostly overwhelmed) balancing pale malts.

T-The taste tracks the smell mostly. I taste pine, citrus (orange zest mostly), and floral, spicy notes on the finish. A really pleasant, moderately bitter mix of hops. I get just a hint of buttery sweetness to go along with the white toasted malts.

M-The heft is lighter with mostly crisp carbonation. Easy to drink.

O-This is a nice summertime IPA. It is lighter on the palate (and in appearance), but it packs plenty of bitterness and hop flavor. A solid effort here.

 

ladies and gentlemen, we may well have a new king of the hill in the colorado ipa scene, and its this one. oh man is this dynamic and delicious! doesnt look anything out of the ordinary, golden and a little cloudy with a tall lasting white head, obvious quality, but nothing unique about its appearance. the nose is a literally a mindbender, its hard to place the hops used, but i feel like im getting nelson or something similarly tropical, southern hemisphere for sure it seems, with white peach and white grape and even a touch of tartness among the juicy ripe fruity hops. the flavor is 97% of the nose, just a shade less lively and expressive, but real close. the hops come in waves, first juicy then bitter with oily sweetness moving in and out as well. a richer grain feel to it, but the beer is neither heavy nor sweet, which i think is an art. to get this much hop aroma and flavor into the beer yet have it be this drinkable is insane, highly uncommon. i have liked basically everything i have had from cannonball creek, but this is next level. they need to package this one so i dont have to go to golden to get it!