Old Hand Coffee IPA
Ravens Brewing Company

 

 

Appearance: Poured in to a Spiegelau IPA Glass. Crystal clear medium orange (borders on brown if you are in low light), head is orange kissed white, generous 2 fingers and fluffy with a moderate dissipation and some fantastic looking lace.

Aromatics: First scents are coffee and toasted caramel with some orange/tangerine, underlying scents of stone fruit (plum/date) and a touch of floral and unsweetened bitter chocolate.

Taste: Amazing for an IPA, the coffee is ever-present (from start to finish) but is not overpowering. It starts of somewhat sweet and caramel-like (no doubt probably due to the amarillo hops) and it is distinctly first before the coffee hits. The coffee aspect is extremely well balanced with the natural hops bitters. The really earthy bite doesn’t come in to play until the finish where it lingers the same way extra dark chocolate does, which kinda makes me look forward to that next sip to get that sweet creaminess at the start again.

Feel: Starts out smooth and creamy, the carbonation keeping enough froth on top for each sip. It is in the middleweight division with a rather juicy texture until the coffee bitter lands which dries up the palate fairly quickly leaving a hefty earth-coffee-cacao bitter to linger.

Overall: A super IPA, and a super unique blend and very different from those IPAs that try to promote solely on the hops, IBUs, or citrus qualities that are fairly stereotypical of IPAs in general. I love coffee stouts, but as an IPA it was definitely unique and I think it works very well compositionally. The sweet scents and added coffee components are a welcome change, and for me this is what separates it from others. The coffee-hops combo perceptively make it seem far greater than the rather modest 70 IBU it does have. It has a strong finish, so I’m not sure I could have these as a regular, but it has a “pair me with great food” written all over it.

Pairing: Ravens suggests pairing with Cave Aged Gruyère, Gougères (a french cheese pastry), Smoked Beef Sandwich, and/or Beer Pretzels. What they are suggesting is balancing the bitter and subtle sweets with savoury and/or salty fat-rich accompaniment - so a nicely aged cheese will have a good salty and/or smoky quality, and a plate of Gougères would be fantastic, the fluffy baked pastry with a decent aged cheese sounds delicious. A smoked beef sandwich and pretzels are decent enough ideas as well without going all chef in the kitchen. A quick and easy deli option like a cheese plate (with a smoked brie or good selection of aged cheeses) or if they offer paninis to-go: smoked turkey club would be just as good as a smoked beef and swiss. But I'd definitely stay away from (or minimize) any vegetables - so no salad.