It Pours
Half Acre Beer Company

Enjoyed at Half Acre Brewery on Balmoral Avenue (Chicago, Illinois): Half Acre It Pours

Brewer Notes: Half Acre X Morton Salt present: It Pours India Pale Ale

As brewers, we use Morton Salt to amplify flavor and magnify beer’s best qualities. Like seasoning food, salt enhances the other ingredients in beer and brightens the overall experience. Which is how we view beer in the largest sense. Morton Salt, along with their slogan “When it rains it pours” holds an indelible place in culture. We aspire to do the same at Half Acre. Half Acre X Morton Salt bring you It Pours IPA, a recipe brewed with Morton Salt. A 7% abv IPA that features one of our favorite New Zealand hop varieties: Riwaka. It Pours pays respect to a traditional IPA while pulling in elements of contemporary recipes. A cross of old and new, it delivers a unique stance on IPA today.

Appearance: Golden tan clear pour, light carbonation, cream bright white head leaves generous fine lacing. 9.5 oz draft pour into a thin tall taster glass. 4.0

Aroma: Firm and pleasant Riwaka hops aroma, pithy grapefruit, citrus, sweet and pleasant. 3.75

Taste: Consistent with aroma, grapefruit, citrus. Nice bitter offset, like this better than their hazy Riwaka DDC offering. A bit salty, in the proper measure. A traditional IPA, like it except disappointed I didn’t order a full pour. 4.25

Mouthfeel: Light to medium body, nice balance, bitterness offsets the riwaka sweetness. Easy drinking and clean finish. Perfect for style. 4.5

Overall: This is a solid IPA, the rivals hops are presented unfettered, the salt complements well. Balanced, light dryness, easy and enjoyable. I’m coming back for more. 4.25

Thursday June 10, 2021 WBAYDN #3155

Tasted in a pub glass from draft at Half Acre Beer Company on May 30, 2021.

 

Canned on 5/13/21; consumed on 6/2/21

Pours a rusted dark orange body with a soft golden sheen and topped with multiple fingers of fluffy, white foam; great head retention yields a rocky cap, a thin, creamy collar, and a chunky walling of dense, soapy lacing coating the walls of the glass.

Aroma opens with the tropical sweetness of guava touched by an intermittent salinity, while light gooseberry and soft lemon zest trickle steadily into the bouquet and sticky mango nectar forms against a wisp of underlying, flaky malt texture to finish.

Taste brings a boggy citrus upfront, highlighted by tangerine contrasting a milder, mossy prickle; soft pineapple in the background phases into orange pith and light hop resins over the mid-palate as a tinge of green banana forms through the back end and pillowy, pine needles close.

Mouthfeel offers a medium-light body stabilizing rocky puffs of moderate carbonation, evening with a pillowy dispersion to smooth resins hinting at a distant, juicy peak in the backdrop; a deft bitterness over the back end of the palate is restrained against a flaky malt complexion, eventually drying through the finish.

Subtle and quenching, this easygoing invites a full spectrum of stylistic elements delicately enhanced with touches of salt for a quietly comprehensive experience; though no element is fully formed, the end result remains a perpetually serviceable hoppy option.