Hopilicious IPA
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant

 

 

 

 

A - Pale gold, slight haze, head has good retention and some lacing.

S - Nice balance of pine hops, bready malts, but some butter comes in as it warms.

T - Whoa, total butter. Pretty nasty, there's some fresh baked bread in there, and finishes with an ambiguous bitterness. More warm butter. Not a whole lot of discernible hop flavor.

M - Full body, medium carbonation, smooth consistency.

O - Overwhelming butter, especially as it warms. Little hop flavor. Labeled as a DIPA by the brewery, this misses the mark.

 

 

 

On tap at Iron Hill, Media. Pours a nearly clear gold with a white head of great size and retention. Lots of lacing, very nice appearance. Big time hoppy nose, very floral and resinous, malt is fairly subdued in the aroma.

Huge floral hops and aspirin bitterness in the flavor. Lesser aspects of citrus and pine resins. Restrained sweetness and malt presence, it’s there but the hops are front and center; finish is pretty dry. Lots of lingering bitterness in the aftertaste.

Medium body, moderate carbonation, smooth and creamy body. An aggressive and tasty DIPA with a good deal of unapologetic bitterness; not at the very head of the class for the style, exactly, but should please most hopheads. Had this one side by side with their Gary Nelson single hop IPA and preferred that one for its subtleties and better overall flavor.

 

 

 

 

Had on-tap at Iron Hill in Media, PA. Poured a golden yellow color with a nice white head that retained well and left spotty lacing. Had an aroma of tropical fruit (mango?), earthy/floral hops and a touch of sweetness. Tasted of mango, grapefruit, earthiness (pine/grass) and sweet malts. Definitely a strong bite of hops in this one as to be expected with a DIPA.

Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. I am not generally a DIPA fan but this one was complex and well-balanced. I very much enjoyed the hop profile.

First had: on tap at Iron Hill, Media, PA

Commandeered this from the wife when she pushed it away in disgust. Poured a golden yellow color, slightly hazy, with a small cap of white head. Aroma warned me of a hop bomb, with scents of resinous pine and lots of citrus. Taste was of hops right off the bat, pine, lemon pith, grapefruit; mellowed out a bit, allowing in some notes of sweet malts and dried apricots. Not too bad at all. A little too light in the mouthfeel to be considered an excellent IPA, and the alcohol warmth was an afterthought. Pretty decent overall.

 

On tap at Iron Hill Media.

16 ounce serving in a standard shaker pint glass. Beer was a hazy, golden color with about a finger of off-white head. Decent retention with some nice lacing.

Aroma is very hop heavy...piney, resinous with some grapefruit and orange notes. Taste is very hop heavy, bitter and citrusy. There wasn't much discernible malt to balance out the hops. I like hops a lot, but there has to be some malt backbone to round out the beer and Hopilicious is a little lacking in that regard.

The beer was medium bodied with a sticky, puckering mouthfeel. Carbonation was good as well.

As I've said, the balance was lacking and that hurt this beer on the whole. It smelled great and the hops bitterness was quite nice, but the maltiness was missing. Overall, a miss, albeit a still decent beer from Iron Hill.

16oz pour from tap at Media location, served in a standard pint glass

A - one solid finger of creamy eggshell colored foam, leaving thin but extremely sticky lacing down the glass. the beer is only slightly hazy, dark gold in color.

S - juicy ripe melons, tropical fruits, slightly bitter grapefrut, and floral hops. malts nowhere to be found in the nose.

T - begins with a sharp bitter hop bite...melons, grapefruit, orange, wet pine needles and grass flavors come through easily. very diverse hop profile. thin layer of lightly sweet malts struggle to get through. finishes with very minor alcohol.

M - body is on the thicker side and slightly syrupy. almost clumsy yet held together by moderate prickly carbonation.

D - well done DIPA. good cap on a few good beers at this IH location.

When I got this, I was worried I might've been served the wrong beer. It was a pale gold/very pale amber and the head was short and relatively short-lived, although one that left a nice lacing that was the beer's high appearance point. The smell wasn't especially hoppy, either, piney or fruity - much maltier than I'd expected and by this point I was a bit worried it was the wrong beer. Tasting it, though, took that fear away. This is definitely an IIPA - downright floral, and with the malt from before keeping it sweeter than bitter. Even though it wasn't too bitter, though, it almost felt as if the hops were tripping over each other - it definitely tasted <i>hoppy</i> but I had trouble picking out any particular notes. There was plenty of carbonation and, as has been mentioned, a slick sort of mouthfeel. I didn't particularly detect anything that would keep it from being really, really drinkable, but in the end I was underwhelmed by this. I suppose I went in with pretty high expectations, but in the end I thought it was fine, good, even, but maybe not the hop spectacle I'd hoped.

I was out and down yesterday for the annual Craft Brewest and since I was early, I decided to pop into the bar for some libations. The server told me that "Big" Bob Barrar had put on a number of seasonal offerings especially for the occasion and that I should try at least one. This was at least one!

It arrived with a finger of off-white head exploding with CO2 bubbles which gave the nose a sticky piny-ness. Zounds! Holy Hops, Batman! The color was a deep, golden-yellow with NE-quality clarity. The first sip left me gasping for breath. If you are a self-professed hophead, as I am, this is the beer for you. I have tasted this sort of thing before, but generally from west coast brewers, not so much here on the east coast. SPOILER ALERT: this compared very well with Moylan's Hopsicle, which I also crave. This was hops, hops, and more hops, scrubbing across the dead taste buds and awakening the dormant ones like the company commander with his aluminum trash can and baseball in the first days of boot camp. OK, deep breath. Whoa, that was like standing in a pine forest and hitting a menthol cigarette. Suddenly, I was aware of my heart beating. Colors were more pronounced and the TV seemed to be melting. Say, what was this anyway? CIA sponsored beer?!? I once got kicked off of an A-B tour for suggesting that a "Hop Wand" - hops encased in a plexiglas wand were waved in front of of the FVs that held Bud. As a believer in Equal Time, Barrar must have used a "Malt Wand". This was distilled hops, nothing more, nothing less. I used to know my name but now it is "Tabula Rasa". All beers should be like this! Drinkability - low! I simply do not have enough remaining expendable brain cells.