Fresh IIPA V47
Hubbard's Cave Brewery

Fresh IIPA V47Fresh IIPA V47
Beer Geek Stats
From:
Hubbard's Cave Brewery
 
Illinois, United States
Style:
Hazy Imperial IPA
ABV:
8.5%
Score:
+3 ratings needed
Avg:
3.91 | pDev: 6.14%
Ratings:
7 | reviews: 2
Status:
Inactive
Rated:
Nov 10, 2020
Added:
Sep 23, 2020
Wants:
  0
Gots:
  0
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Ratings by Sound_Explorer:
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Rated by Sound_Explorer from Washington

3.78/5  rDev -3.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Oct 17, 2020
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 3.59 by thoss from Rhode Island

Nov 10, 2020
 
Rated: 4.03 by Danmullens1 from Wisconsin

Oct 13, 2020
 
Rated: 4.15 by Keananmichael5 from California

Oct 08, 2020
 
Rated: 4.23 by EdFed from Illinois

Oct 08, 2020
Photo of snaotheus
Reviewed by snaotheus from Washington

3.99/5  rDev +2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
2020-10-06
16oz can served in a big snifter. Canned 090220. Bought it on Tavour.

Pours a very hazy dull whitish amber with a medium sized head and carbonation slowly clawing its way up through the murk. Smell is rich ripe tropical fruit juice, a little resin.

Taste is much more on the resin side. Rich ripe tropical fruit is there, but more as a counterpoint to some deep resin and fruit skin bitterness. Little bit of a bright flash of fruity sweetness late in the taste.

Mouthfeel is very dry despite being fairly thick. Overall, II like it.
Oct 07, 2020
Photo of ichorNet
Reviewed by ichorNet from Massachusetts

3.61/5  rDev -7.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
The Fresh series by HC has been pretty intriguing overall, in my experience. Not always the best beers, but most of the time they're at least a cool dive into how odd hop combos work together or some other such enlightening experience. I'm always at least interested in seeing how they come out, I suppose, so to see one brewed with Nelson, Citra, and Simcoe (the latter of which I have recently decided may be one of the best varietals ever to come out of the West Coast scene, and potentially one of the most "ahead-of-its-time" hops considering its odd renaissance in recent times) definitely had my curiosity piqued.

The pour here is typically nice as most of these Fresh IIPAs have been... medium-orange and thick/dense with a juicy appearance and fluffy, eggshell-white head that settles down to a thin, quarter-finger ring after a few minutes, leaving behind solid, consistent lace. Good legs and general stability here. I'm into it so far.

The nose here is honeyed malt, grapefruit, papaya, slight plastic (never great, but it's not overly obtrusive here), tangy white wine (w/ unusual minerality), tangerine/tangelo, and ethanol. I mean, there are some enjoyable things happening here for sure but I'm more than a bit distracted by how strong it seems and some of the off-notes that bother me. The Fresh series has never really been very clean (unless you count the beer literally called "Clean IPA" by these guys, which was suspicious but actually good), but this one seems quite dirty and estery. Not sure if something's weird about the ferment here, but it's not inspiring a ton of confidence.

The flavor profile is grainy and slightly harsh with a boozy overtone and flavors of orange, tangerine, grapefruit, papaya, and overripe mango, with some lighter notes of melon and passion fruit plus the unnecessary, unfortunate plastic-y note that I don't appreciate. Stuff like this tends to give me a headache, and this beer feels a bit like I'm gonna regret finishing it. The finish has some solvent ethanol and rough grainy flavors that just don't work out well. I like the idea of this hop combo well enough (even though Citra and Nelson can be a little combative, in theory), but this is not one of the best HC IPAs. Some quality control should be in place to make sure dirty tasting, harsh beers like this don't make it out of the brewery, though, first and foremost.
Sep 23, 2020