X-Ray IPA
Soulcraft Brewing

 

 

 

A clean clear sparkling gold with tiny nucleation bubbles. It smells mildly dank and spicy. The taste is moderately dank, slightly floral and spicy with a touch of pine. The feel is clean and slightly bitter. A very crisp and clean east meets west coast IPA that scratches the anti haze itch.

 

 

12 fl oz pull-tab CAN (no best before or born on date appears on the label):

7% ABV. "IPA." From their website:

"IBU's [sic]: 84
X-Ray is an IPA that blends classic American hop varieties with new school American and Australian hops. Tight bitterness, huge citrus flavor and aroma are carried by American barley. The malt composition is light and accented by a small amount of caramel malt."

Served cold into a conical pint glass.

APPEARANCE: Pours a vibrant copper body with a ~4cm off-white head atop.

AROMA: Floral hop aromatics. Passionfruit. Mango. Clean pale malt sweetness/2-row barley. Mild oily hop aromatics.

In short, it's pleasant and suggests a balanced brew with a likable hop profile. I'm eager to try it.

TASTE & TEXTURE: Coating, medium-bodied, and smooth up front yet dry towards the finish - which encourages the next sip. Oily but oddly refreshing, with near perfect carbonation. Its oily texture accentuates the subtle hop oil flavours present throughout.

Hop profile is good...classic floral hop character (probably C-hops), faint pith, mango, hop oils, passionfruit, vague tropical fruit. I like it, and it doesn't come with too much concomitant hop bitterness. It's balanced, with the caramel malt and pale malt keeping any hop bitterness in check - or at least leaving enough bitterness that it's aggressive yet pleasant.

Depth of hop flavour is above average. Boasts ample hop pungency, not shielding the drinker from the hop flavour or bitterness with any lactose gimmickry or oats & wheat or any of the contemporary tricks you'd find in many an IPA.

I don't get any grapefruit, pine, oniony/garlicky notes, overt "dank" resin/cannabis flavours, etc.

OVERALL: A drinkable likable IPA that successfully marries the tropical character of New World hop varietals (frankly, I suspect Galaxy) with a more classic American hop character (C-hops are my suspicion, plus maybe Amarillo and/or Citra).

I confess I didn't expect Salida, CO to bring an IPA to market that was this tasty, but it's always nice to find a diamond in the rough.

High B- (3.50) / WORTHY

 

 

 

 

L - perfect west coast oily IPA
S- sweet God its onion everything bagel heaven.
T - everything bagel. Amazing.
F - great carbonation
O - maybe my new fave IPA in Colorado after Superpower. Haters go to hell.

 

Clear and fairly light considering ABV. The aroma is exceptional from the less common Australian hops that appear to be used for the aromatics. Mouthfeel is above average. The IBUs seem to be fairly low, though.

Mild floral and dank tasting. Incredibly mediocre.