Organic IPA Single Hop Series - Columbus Hop
Bison Brewing

 

Not exactly in-season, but the beer is holding up fine. I love the single hopped beers. Sure they lack dimension and variety, but the education about the attributes of individual hops are a great learning experience.

The beer begins with a rust colored malty beverage with highlights of orange, amber, and deep golden notes. A froathy foamstand stubbornly sits through the duration, leaving lots of lacing. Quite hazy throughout due to the dry-hopping?

Strong aromas of pine, pear, grapefruit, and orange zest swirl about the nose. A heavy dose a sweet maltiness rises giving the hops a run for their money. Promises to be an enjoyable drink.

Flavors are very rich with sweet malt up front. Esters of peaches, pears, appricots, and mangos give the yeast and malt a lot of character and sweetness. Juicy hop flavors of orange peel, grapefruit, pineapple, and pine cones slowly overtake the malts and finish with a dry pine, grassy flavor.

The mouthfeel is full, round, robust, and ultimately quite sweet for an IPA. Though quite pleasant, the beer doesn't have that snappy cracker-like malt character or that dry, clean finish. Still, the beer's texture is more like an English IPA than an American IPA.

The beer as expected is a joy to drink. The complexity of the beer lies in its malt and yeast profiles. This leaves the hops to fend for themselves. The single hop profile struggles to overcome the malt-yeastiness. Still, well woven and simple in its display, I now know the true character of the Columbus Hop. Nice going Bison!

Well Iam guessing this bottle is pretty old as it has been retired and the last review was on 2-23 but I still see it on a few shelves here in Greensboro.Poured into a 22oz nonic a slight hazed copper with a real burnt orange hue a large fluffy white head atop that settled into a thick creamy mass leaving layers of broken lace behind.Muted aromas I am not sure if it is from age or its just not strong to begin with,light herb and biscuit malt mainly.A different sort of hop profile on the palate Columbus hop provide more leafy/herbal tones and some earth a pretty big biscuity malt base holds firm and imparts a bit of honey sweetness.Really balanced maybe a little to balanced its not a bad brew though,I would like to have tried really fresh.

Slightly chill hazed amber colored beer with a decent off-white colored head.

The smell is sweet and on the flowers and perfume side of hop expression. A little woody and earthy smelling grapefruit isn't in here and the pine is a bit subdued. Tropical scents are present, mostly pineapple and papaya.

The taste starts out neutral in sweetness and stoutly bitter. Woody and earthy this is pretty bone dry for an AIPA.

Mouthfeel is OK.

Smells far better than it tastes this is quite dry and earthy bitter for an IPA. OK I guess but it isn't anything I would buy again.

Gold/orange slightly hazy body with a quarter-finger of head that sticks around. Some lacing.

Big dose of Columbus hops, of course, but there is also an underlying honey aroma. Whether this is malt or a hop aroma, it's hard to say. Very nice, though.

Taste is highly hoppy, not much malt character supporting it. There's also some very slight oxidation, which seems to be a common theme with this brewery.

Moderately high carbonation, the hops aren't as sticky as I though they would be. Kind of nice because it makes the whole thing a bit more drinkable.

This beer came in a 22 oz bottle from bevmo, the clerk took the tag off that said it was of the single hop series otherwise i would have taken a picture.

Its got a nice orange color but its hazy and has a lot of yeast floating around. There was a lot of carbonation and foam but the foam was thin. The foam also tasted terrible. The beer smelled of a very familiar hop variety with a bit of orange mixed in.

The beer tasted wonderful. The columbus hops are very apparent and compliment the malty flavor nicely. The bitterness is about right for an IPA. It has a nice body (not too thick and not too thin) and it goes down real smooth. This is more of a beer to drink with a meal.

Other than the abundance of yeast and the foul tasting foam it really is quite good. Would like to try the other single hop series IPAs

Served in a pint glass
A: One finger of thick and foamy head. Deep golden color, with a cloudy appearance from the yeast
S: Orange frosting. Citrus and grassy notes play alongside.
T: Pleasant bitterness, very well balanced as no flavor jumps to the forefront.
M: Bitterness strongly present on the outside edges of my tongue
D: Very drinkable, I could have two or three pints of this. I want more!

Note: this beer was consumed and reviewed several months ago. I moved the review to its proper place today because I originally confused the Summit Hop version with this Columbus Hop version (due to no neck labels being present on either bottle).

Ripe tangerine with a fine yeasty haze and edges of sunshiny amber. The head looks good as well. It displays an attractive moonscape rockiness as it melts and is beginning to lay down an abundance of sandblasted lace.

A single sniff is all it takes to tell me that I guessed wrong on these two single-hopped Bison IPAs. This nose is clearly dominated by Columbus. I'd recognize that telltale white grapefruit and orange juiciness anywhere.

I'm still not jumping for joy at the flavor profile, but it's better here than in the Summit-hopped beer. I now wonder if the Summit hops were bad or if I simply don't like them as much as I like this hop. I'm leaning toward the former since I've had Summit before and have liked them just fine.

There's plenty of pale malt, with no hint of caramel or even toastedness. Enough Columbus hops have been added to keep the beer well north of APA territory. The bitterness was a little harsh at first (a function of drinking hoppy beer at cooler than 55-60 degrees), but has smoothed out a good bit in the past several mouthfuls.

Thankfully, I get almost none of the earthy funkiness that I detested in the other beer. This may not be the cleanest IPA on the block, but then too clean isn't always good either. As in the nose, white grapefruit and bitter orange hold sway over just about everything else. A spritz of pine sap and a puff of herb contribute as well.

The mouthfeel is pretty much the same as my memory of the other beer. That isn't surprising since they're supposed to be identical except for the hops used. It's mid-range for the style, with a restrained amount of carbonation that makes imbibing a breeze.

For my money, this Columbus Hop version beats the Summit Hop version hands down.

Huge citrus aroma, lemons & Grapefruit. With a lot of searching, there is a light amount of pale malt aroma underneath that.

Even though I poured carefully, I got a 3 inch rocky head and had to quit with a glass half full and the rest head. Not a good sign. Otherwise it's clear with several columns of big fast rising bubbles.

Well, the columbus (tomohawk) hops are definitely on display. The bitterness level is very strong and the general flavor is grapefuit. There's a little metalic taste that I get from Columbus when used in large amounts too. Malt is just barely there on the aftertaste.

Mouth is medium bodied with bracing carbonation level.

This is a tough one. Columbus is a really in your face hop and here it dominates everything from the aroma to the taste. It's fine as an experiment and useful to know what Columbus is like but not something 'll drink again.

Poured out of a 22oz bomber into a pint glass. The razor thin head was quickly diminishing and left almost no lacing on the glass. The aroma was far more on the malty side than any IPA I've ever had before, even British IPAs. The taste was even more on the malty side. The resounding taste that came through seemed to be of burnt caramel. I could tell that there were hops present, but it seemed as though they were fighting a losing battle against the malts. The mouthfeel is alright for an amber or strong ale, but this is labeled an IPA. I truly don't think it qualifies. I may try whatever comes around next in their single hop series, but if it isn't any better, I'll steer away completely.

Just a neck ring Columbus hop indicator states that this regular IPA label is a varietal hop version at $3 a bomber is worth a pop. Label: 6.8% ABV.

Pours with a sunset amber ochre loaded with suspended particles topped with a frothy ivory bubbly head cap.

Nose is a light butterscotch with sweet caramel and floral balance.

First swigs: Sweetness emphasized, followed with a syrupy sweet maple syrup. Narrow flavor focuses on the butterscotch (not diacetyl) and a soft bitterness that allows a linger of vanilla ice cream and malt base. A touch of cinnamon and oily apple butter fills the flavor.

Feel is solid and frothy. Medium bodied. A touch sweet sugar cloying with a linger.

Last swigs: Columbus varietal is certainly interesting. Interesting and flavorful. A tad on the malty side.

Ok 22 oz bomber bought at Lifesource in Salem $2.99. Nice looking beer, quite dark for an IPA, dark amber and slightly hazy, small off white head, leaves nice lace. Aroma is certainlly hoppy ,but much maltiness is apparent like the original, Flavour again is like the parent brew mostly semi-bitter malty..then the Columbus hops take over in a big way at the back of the mouthful more pine than grapfruit in character, long lasting resinous bitterness. I found this quite ok onthe palate, but really i found the sudden appearance of the Columbus hops a little weird. Overall a nice beer, but strangely i preferred the original , with its almost English style balance.

Presented in the same 22oz bottle with the same label as the regular Bison IPA, differentiated by a tag around the neck detailing the designation of "Single Hop Series" and featuring a picture of the Columbus hop.
Pours a golden-orange color topped by a good inch of creamy white head that leaves some pretty lacing on the glass. Aroma of sweet, bready malt and piney Columbus hops. For a beer purportedly featuring hops, the aroma leans a bit toward the malty side, more like an ESB than an IPA.
Palate again leans towards the bready malt, with a suggestion of light caramel and pine. The hops are definitely present here as well, with a touch of grapefruit and grass peeking through. Body is smooth and a little rich for an IPA, which is certainly not a bad thing. Overall, a very nice beer. I'm interested to see what the other entries in the single hop series will be like.