Chinookied
Ethereal Brewing

 

 

They say that it's too aggressive, too unrefined, too strong in bitterness, grassiness and stemmy taste. They say to only use sparingly in bitterness additions to lagers. They are the ones in lab coats and they couldn't be more wrong. Ethereal demonstrates the potential of this Chinook hop with an American amber ale of the same name.

Bright and beautiful with a medium honey-amber glow. Its stern creamy cap swirls with the scent of pink grapefruit, under-ripened orange, and the fragrance of a fresh mowed lawn. Brash in its grassiness, the taste couldn't be softer. Toasted honey, nutty granola and a kiss of bubblegum fruitiness greet the front of the tongue with a malty-sweet upstart.

As the taste develops over the middle palate, the sweetness relaxes just as the hops intensify. Citrus fruit flavors turn from a radiant juiciness and toward a resinous herbal character of fruit peels. Grassy, weedy and pine-like, the the taste trends IPA-like with a dry and toasty backbone and a billowing spruce flavor that grips the gullet with acute, sappy bitterness.

Medium-bodied and retaining a malty base to support the hops and to round their rougher, twiggy edges, the aggression of Chinook hops push the balance and dryness into an IPA world. But with a somber strength and only a slight hop-forward balance, the ale is a balanced but brazen- giving a glimpse into what an American IPA might have been thirty years ago in Portland, Or.