Champagne Hopi
Alvarado Street Brewery

Crowler from Rick. Pale golden pour , spotty head. Light sweet fruity aroma, grapes. Taste is more white grapes, sweet, fruity. Light on the palate too.

Here's another pickup from Alvarado on the road trip down/across I80/I5 to go see the Stones at the Rose Bowl in Sep 2019.

Pours the usual darker golden color familiar to anyone who has had a beer. 1/3" white head. Not the most clear beer, guess there might be some hop or other residuals at play. The aroma is nice, but for whatever reason, almost every brut beer came across less aromatic than the standard bearers of the day. Had a light Mosaic weed, guava and light berry influence.

Taste rocks much the same way. There are hoppy notes full of berries, pine, grapefruit rind, tangerine and guava, really runs the gamut of hop flavors. Its not massive, there is plenty of restraint in a good way. The mouth feel is true to form, very light and dry, true to the brut subgenre. Even hides the alcohol decently.

This was one of the better brut ipas to come out that year. But at a high price point and still being below average for a brewery that cranks out top notch elite ipas, this was prolly a 4 pack and done, and not just bc nobody makes bruts anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

All of these ratings come with "I guess" kind of a caveat. This a really new style, so it's somewhat hard to rate it very objectively. But this fits the description well. It's dry, kind of sweet on both the taste and the smell (undoubtedly from the Mosaic hops), and has a very nice body feel. This beer is absolutely clear, there is zero head retention or lacing, carbonation is low, alcohol in not apparent. Good beer overall, and is definitely worth a try, though at considering Alvarado's price point, I'm not sure how good of a value for money it is.

 

 

 

 

Hoppy champagne is a pretty good description.

L: Crystal clear gold, small head that quickly dissapated completely and left no lacing at all.

S: Danky, resinous hops with a little bit of citrus & tropical fruit notes. Really like a normal WC-IPA here.

T: Follows nose, seems a bit lighter here. Again hoppy notes you'd associated with a WC-IPA.

F: This is the aspect that really separates this type from other styles of IPA. Light bodied, great carbonation, as clean and bone dry as it gets, maybe just a trace of bitterness somewhere in the end.

O: My first Brut IPA, and I can easily see how this style is prime for takeoff. Seems like a super approachable way to a WC-IPA for those who head for the hills when they hear abound bitterness. Left a good impression, so I'll be picking up more of this particular style.