Boys to the Yard
Bridge Brewing Company

A- This one pours a coppery brown color, with generalized clarity (see chill hazed), has a super white foamy head, and the retention factor is not bad, eventually settling down into a thick film over the liquid. Carbonation appears to be fairly aggressive, with many columns of bubbly goodness rising to the top quickly, and the lacing is fairly good.....tear drop formations cling to the inside of my glass. Overall not a bad looking Ale!

S- I actually get a large aroma of citrus rind (orange/grapefruit), perhaps mild chocolate nuances, grassy/grainy dry Earthiness, some faint caramel malt sweetness, and a finish that is clean and crisp hoppy bitterness. Nothing special here....just typically found aromas...btw, where is the coconut?

T- I'm quite disappointed in the flavor of this one.....there is most definitely plenty of hop usage, which provides the IPA portion of the brew....unfortunately there is next to nothing for chocolate and/or coconut happening here. I get some basic malt sweetness that is swiftly overcome with bitter hopcones really.....moving on.....

M/O- Medium body/mouthfeel and a large carbonation character explodes over the palate, probably making this the best part of the beer! I don't consider this much more than an expensive version of a run of the mill weaker version of an IPA. I am glad I decided to give it a go anyways, but don't recommend it and say 'SAVE YOUR MONEY!' Wont be sad to see this one disappear off of the shelf.

650ml bottle - a 'chocolate coconut milkshake IPA'. In the manner of one George Takei - oooh, my!

This beer pours a clear, medium copper amber colour, with a teeming tower of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly ecru head, which leaves some stellar linked and webbed lace around the glass as it rather lazily sinks out of sight.

It smells of bready and doughy caramel malt, bittersweet cocoa powder, faint copra meat, bland lactose, and some very tame earthy, musty, and dead floral hops. The taste is gritty and grainy caramel malt, liquefied Bounty bars, cold cream, and more well-understated herbal, leafy, and slightly perfumed floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate-coating frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and fairly smooth, with a wee airy creaminess pretty much there from the get-go. It finishes off-dry, the coconut/chocolate thing showing a lot of lingering swagger.

Overall - this offering definitely delivers the titular goods, rendering a pleasantly flavoured, if not particularly typical, IPA. The guest ingredients tend to make me think more in the vein of a big stout, but it is what it is, I suppose. And I have to give props to the marketing angle - this, and the improving weather, have inspired in me the will to go out and shovel some of the underused parts of my backyard. Yeah.