Bi-Coastal
Mile Wide Beer Co.

 

 

 

Date: Canned on 11/26/18, consumed on 01/02/19. First beer of 2019!

Appearance: Bi-Coastal has the half and half appearance as advertised. It has the deep golden hue of a nice west coast IPA and the unfiltered haze of the New England style. It also produces a rather pillowy two finger white head.

Aroma: Pine, herbal qualities, and lightly sweetened cereal notes are all up front with some grapefruit bringing up the rear.

Taste: The taste follows the nose closely with pine, herbs, and some bitterness up front before it sort of flips. The second half of the double feature brings more smooth nondescript fruity qualities that don’t last long. The finish is all about the return of the bitterness and it brings some light herbal hops which swirl around the palate. As it warms a bit, even more herbal notes come out, is there basil in here? It’s a decent beer, very intriguing what they have done in mixing the two styles. It isn’t entirely successful as it never really gets as fruity as I would have liked, but overall I still enjoyed Bi-Coastal.

Who says you can't teach old beers new tricks. As brewers have learned to unlock more of the hop aromatics and flavor potential, the classic West Coast IPA seems to be waning in popularity. But like a sudsy kumbaya, brewers like those of Mile Wide are bringing these hoppy styles together.

Pale gold and reasonably hazy, Bi-Coastal IPA comes with foggy appearance and a frothy blanket of foam. Strong citrus and pine aromas swirl about the nose with a bready, sweet and nearly cereal scent tucked nicely behind the hops. Moderately sweet upfront, those light caramelization, toasty sweetness and pastry crust characteristics seem to be both West Coast and New England styled malt support.

The attention quickly turns from the malt and toward the hops as the old school hops of Chinook, Centennial, Columbus and Simcoe deliver a wallop of grapefruit, orange peel and herbal flavors that all seem slightly green or under ripened. Its herbal taste of parsley, lemongrass and verbena trend aggressively bitter with an extension of chive, fresh pine shavings and hemp late on the palate.

Medium bodied and trending dry, the beer's mild pastry flavors are largely foregone in favor of an intensifying hop bitterness in order to allow the more West Coast dryness and bitterness to win out in the end. But the beer does elevate the fruit character of those old school hops in a much more vivid way than we had commonly seen them in traditional West Coast varieties.