#40 Denali IPA
Venn Brewing Co.

Slightly hazy look, bright golden color, massive, lace-leaving ivory head atop.

In the nose: Tropical tones aplenty, pineapple and passionfruit, mango and more. Not getting much else, not that I mind. Lovely stuff. Exquisitely pleasant.

In the mouth: Bolt of bitterness blasts the palate first, then fades and invites in the fruit. Scrumptious. I haven't said that in a while. Fruity, while not quite sweet, then dry. Nice little dance between the fruity and the bitter. Medium bodied, long-lasting bitterness. Delightful. Hits me in all the right places.

This is an IPA I would return to again, and again.

i dug this one, a really clean and basic ipa, but featuring denali hops, which i am not sure i have seen in a single hop context before. obviously its a great hop, but they have done a nice job with it too. it has elements of new zealand varietals with that tropical and white grapey floral vibe, but also a new school american component, mosaic citrus and pineapple aspects. the cool thing here is that its unique in aroma and flavor, but its also sort of delicate, not over the top dry hoppy, and certainly not very bitter, which makes it a nice session type of beer. what is unclear for me is whether this mild hop intensity is a product of the hop itself or of the recipe. i suspect the latter, as i found their other recipes to be quite conservative, even in usually esoteric and bold styles like sahti. the flavor of the hops is great though, and the simple pale barley malt base seems about right, its there but its out of the way, a balanced beer, fresh and nuanced, but also with wide appeal, this would work for the pale drinker as well as the ipa folks. overall a nice beer and a cool introduction to denali hops in this way, ill look for more denali beers to gain a little more perspective on them, but this was solid.