G IPA
Altstadt Brewery

12oz can best before 5-1-24, opened on 4-27-24.
2 finger white head with great retention, settles in at a thick 1/2" cap. Golden body with good clarity. Sticky lacing.
Oranges and lemon in an otherwise spicy, grassy hop forward aroma.
Taste follows the aroma, spicy/grassy/some citrus - lemon oil.
Medium bodied with appropriate level of carbonation. Hefty wallop of bitterness that lingers in a dry finish.
Good.

Here's a score from 2023's trip to Texas. Pours a brass like color. Smallish 1/4" white head on the top. The aroma is different, these aren't the usual ipa hops up in here (up in here). They hit with more of a lager kind of vibe even though they are big on the citrus grapefruit aromas alongside a light malty hit. For having huell melon hops they didn't really give a notion of melon here.

Taste is a moderate crystal malt meets lemon and orange bitterness. More of one of those approaching balance ipas despite its relative heft in the bitterness department. Its a slight change with the German/Vienna malt approach, but it definitely stands out as something more unique in the ipa department. Its also an interesting abv point as an ipa, hitting lower than the average one.

At the end of the day though, as much as I knock the creativity department of a Citra/Mosaic combo, that would still be preferable, even if I enjoyed this one for being different.

Pours a cloudy golden color with a very solid head. Smell of a malty sweetness and fruit. Taste is warm with a hint of banana, but not as sweet as the smell implied. Less sweet than a Hazy IPA. Bitter taste, but not nearly as much as you’d expect in an IPA. Very easy drinking beer.

Best by 5/2/25. Drank 3/9/25
Pour is a deep golden with a nice cap of off white foam. Good lacing and retention.
Nose is berries, a bit dank
Taste follows. Berries, pine, moderate bitterness. Nicely balanced.

 

 

Well I picked this up by mistake, thinking I had grabbed the Octoberfest. However this mistake was not very consequential, as anything Altstadt winds up being good anyway.

So a German IPA, eh? Although listed here as an American IPA, I could conceivably agree that this one is more 'German' than 'American'.

I say that bc this isn't over the top with blasting, in-your-face hops. Rather it's more along the lines of something you'd expect to be brewed with noble hops, giving a blended balance with the malts, whose profile also seems pretty German.

Nevertheless, there's no shortage of flavor, and there's much more balance than typical for American IPAs. For that reason, you could probably classify this as something else and get away with it, but I'm not going to speculate on what that might be.

So in the end I'm just considering this to be an 'American' IPA that deviates from the norm* moreso than average. It's probably into the 2-point-something standard deviations bracket. Perhaps Heisenberg's uncertainty principle disallows pinning it down exactly. All of which I can live with.

The main thing is that Altstadt once again does not disappoint.

*To quote the greatest composer of all times, Frank Zappa:

"without deviation from the norm, progress is impossible"

 

Nice hoppy character, pours a deep golden color with white head that leaves lace abundantly on the glass. 5.3% alcohol is very session-able tastes if cracker, pineapple notes and hoppy finish. Very enjoyable.

Poured from a can into a pint glass
Appearance – The beer pours a lightly hazed golden color with a large head of white foam. The head fades rather fast leaving a light level of foamy lace on the sides of the glass.
Smell – The aroma is strongest of a bready and grainy aroma mixed with some sweeter smells of caramel and melon. Along with these smells comes a bit of tropical fruit and some herbal and grassy smells.
Taste – The taste begins with a bready and cracker malt flavor that has some tropical fruit notes of tangerine and papaya. Upfront there is a modest showing of an herbal and floral hop as well as some flavors of grass and earth. As the taste advances the hop flavors get stronger, while the sweeter flavors dwindle. At the end of the taste transition the grass grows stronger and is joined by a bit of hay, leaving one with a moderately “green” hopped taste to linger on the tongue.
Mouthfeel – The body of the brew is on the medium side, with a carbonation level that is high. Overall, the feel keeps this an easy drinker.
Overall – A rather decent IPA with a non-citrus laden taste. Easy drinking.