Forge Ahead
Workhorse Brewing Company

Review: 2248
Name: Forge Ahead
Brewery: Workhorse Brewing
Location: King of Prussia, PA
Style: West Coast I.P.A.
A.B.V.: 7.9%
Canned: 04/16/2024
Date: 11 Nov 2024
Forge Ahead is my first beer from Workhorse, and I am looking forward to trying something new from a brewery. I am using a tulip glass and serving the beer at 44 degrees. The pour created a frothy, airy, two-fingered, white head with average retention. The somewhat slow dissipation left chunks of lacing on the glass. The color is light amber with straw yellow hues, charting at S.R.M. 6, and is slightly hazy. The appearance of the beer is above average.
Nosing the glass, I smell citrus, herbal, light pine, mangos, passion fruit, and pineapple. Smelling the glass again, I smell lightly toasted malts, bread, toasted bread crust, crackers, yeast, lemons, and some malty sweetness. The beer's aromas are intense hops and a solid malt backbone.
The flavors display the hop profile used, which includes floral blossoms, herbs, pineapple, pine needles, mango, pineapple, lemons, oranges, and passion fruit. The malt complex is lightly toasted malts, toasted bread, malty sweetness, and cereal grains.
The mouthfeel is astringent and tannic, finishing dry. The body is medium and has medium carbonation.
As I sip this lovely I.P.A., I struggle with its being called a W.C.I.P.A. The hop profile contains many fruity and floral notes. For me, W.C.I.P.A is a big, in-your-face grapefruit, pine, herbal, and grass note. Forge Ahead is closer to N.W.I.P.A. The beer is still a wonderful delight to sip on this November's warm fall day.

Poured into a stemless wine glass: color is gold, hazy, head is off white with fine bubbles, head presents one finger thick then dissipates to solid top with spotty lacing on the glass sides.

Smell is surprisingly malty, like in the middle of mashing malty - oats and base malt blended well, hops intermingle with light grapefruit pith and mixed light tropicals,

Taste is more fresh mashed malt, oats, pils or very light pale malt, with oat/wheat biscuit notes; hops come through with light citric pith, tropicals, though limited in earth and pine notes that I seek in a WC style.

Mouthfeel is low/moderate carbonation, low/moderate sweetness, moderate bitterness.

Overall an AIPA in presentation - haze, malt, and moderate bitterness; not really NE or WC but a blend of the style.

Overall

With the entire contents of a pint can emptied into a clear glass liter mug, some things can be determined. The brew is dark apricot-amber and it provides little off-white head. There are both earthy and fruity aspects to its aroma. Upon the first taste, there's delightfully more malty sweetness than expected, especially from this style. Yet, it has the requisite sharp bite at the finish expected. Unlike some, this has plenty of body to deliver the sharpness of the hops. Overall, it may not be the epitome of a West Coast style IPA because of the noticeable malt character, but regardless of category, this is a very good beer. Better balanced than some good WCIPAs, there's still enough of that bitterness to satisfy most who like that style. Yet, it has enough of a malty body to satisfy traditional IPA lovers; so, only those that prefer greatly softened hazy style beers will dislike this. Despite a decent body, there wasn't much glass lacing and the modest head didn't last. But that's OK, as this is a very made beer.

Poured from a 16 oz. can into a nonic pint glass. Look is hazy, straw-colored with a thin, white head that dissipates quickly. Strong grapefruit aroma. Taste follows nose. Light carbonation and bitterness on the tongue. Overall, an enjoyable IPA.

 

 

 

From a 16oz can dated "canned" 4/16/24 into a 20oz "pint" glass.

Pours a murky, not opaque, orange with about one finger of light beige head. Really good retention and lacing.

Right off the bat, I'm getting oranges and citrus on the nose fading into a woody resinous pine. Maybe even some berries as this thing warms.

There's a lot of juice and pine in the taste-the juice is strong in this one, but so is the pine. Both are distinct yet balanced. Light malty sweetness on the back end with a little alcohol heat. I'd say the bitterness wins, but it's close.

Full-bodied, sticky, low carbonation mouthfeel. Nice bitter aftertaste.

This is a hard one. Pretty juicy for a WCIPA but still with strong bitterness and malt. Not sure if it's a "true" WCIPA (whatever that means any more?), but I'm digging it.