Fresh Hop Fiend: Simcoe
Stoup Brewing Brewery & Taproom

 

 

Can recieved in a drive by porch bombing by @snaotheus

New beer, new brewery

Chilled can poured into a pint glass , clear golden liquid , microcarbonation streams, fizzy rocky craggy one finger white foam cap quickly fades to a thin island and ring

Aroma is pine resin

Taste is piney, resin
Low sudsing, Hop bite

Good beer

Poured into a Reuben's Brew pint glass. Pours a very slightly hazy, medium golden amber with a two finger white head with great retention and solid lacing. Aroma of pale malt, citrus and piney hops, orange, grapefruit, mild mixed fruit and pine. Flavor is pale malt, citrus and piney hops, grapefruit, lemon, passion fruit and resinous pine with terpenes; moderate to forward bitterness.. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. I always look forward to Simcoe harvest in fresh hop time, since it seems to cover all the bases as a single hop variety with great West Coast style citrus and pine as well as solid bitterness. These are on display here, with good citrus and lots of pine with resinous character and nice finishing bitterness. The Hop Fiend fresh hop ales have been among my favorites each year and this is nice one. What a great time of year.

 

This one pours a mostly clear golden straw yellow color, with a small head, and lots of lacing.

This smells like earthy and spicy hops, citrusy orange, fruity tea, and slight malt.

This is definitely quite bitter, but it's got a bright orange and almost tea-like sort of flavor as well. There's a bit of maltiness, but it's not overwhelming. Simcoe tends to be a favorite hop of mine, and this continues that feeling.

This is light bodied, with a slight astringency to it, and a good drinkability.

I could do without that light malt sweetness, but otherwise, this is very nice.

 

 

 

2020-09-26
16oz can served in a big snifter. Dated 09/21/20.

Pours a clear orange-amber. Smallish head. Medium to low carbonation. Smell is resin and lemons.

Taste is on the sweeter side of IPAs, simcoe comes across nice and fresh and bright but not quite enough for the sweetness. Wait, the bitterness is there, it takes a while to accumulate and it sneaks up on you a bit.

Mouthfeel is medium and fairly still. Tasty beer.

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2024-09-29
Can's purple this year, dated 09/24/2024. Stamp says Simcoe, label says IPA, that's why I put it under this listing. Clear, brass-colored, small head. Hops are kind of muted, more in the melon direction than I would expect from Simcoe. It's not bad.

16oz can (canned 9/21/2020) into a tulip. Pours a clear golden color with a big fluffy white head.

Aroma is delightfully juicy and citrusy, leading with orange and backed up by some grapefruit. Very much a Simcoe beer.

Taste is a little more malt-forward than the aroma. Pale biscuity malt makes its presence known, overlain by more of the juicy citrus. Finishes with a nice clean bitterness.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied, balanced. Washes over the palate and the gently resinous hop bite wraps things up.

Overall a pretty solid fresh hop IPA that definitely falls on the West Coast side of the IPA divide.