Wet Hop IPA
Old Ivy Brewery and Taproom

Had a sampler of this on tap at the Brewery and then it blew so I got a 22oz bottle for the price of a pint. Good deal.

appearance - golden/amber, clear, foam head, good retention, sticky lacing

smell - resinous and floral hops on the nose

taste - resin, dank, floral, citrus hops up front, sweet malt body to balance things out

mouthfeel - medium/large body, well carbonated, carbonation bites, heavy dry finish

drinkability - one of the better brews I've tried at Salmon Creek Brewery, the resin is strong, could be a bit more floral but great brew

Stopped by SCB&P around 5pm on a Wednesday afternoon. Asked for the Wet Hop IPA, which was listed atop a handwritten scrap of paper attached to the main beer menu. Arrived in a logoed pint glass with a golden rim.

: Over a finger of fluffy head, which probably means I was an ounce or two short of a 'full pint'. Didn't care, however...that ivory foam slowly sank over a few minutes, becoming a thicker crams and leaving broad cobwebs of sticky lace. Light-hazed copper, carbonation is low.

S: Powdery pith and a faint mustiness, slight caramel and a light 'organic' aroma I'd liken to the sweet, decaying scent of week-old grass clippings. Meh.

T: 'Fresh' hops don't burst forth, but are still alive and kicking in early December (more than two months past the hop harvest). Juicy tangerine citrus, cut grass, and a flowery clover. Malty caramel with a bittering 'toasted crust' finish.

M: Soft carbonation, feel is generally creamy. Light-medium body. Serving temperature seems a bit warm, 'cask-like'. Sm-o-o-o-o-th.

D: Gulp! So easy to drink. Balance is excellent, taste is enticing. Will look forward to this again next fall. Good job, Salmon Creek.

Fresh hop ales are difficult to evaluate and compare to one another owing to their brief, seasonal appearance and the fact that brewers generally get just one opportunity per year to experiment with fresh-from-the-bine hops. Imagine a new style that only a few score of brewers have been producing at a rate of one batch per year for less than a decade, and it's easy to see how many efforts taste more like the preliminary experiments they are and not like the evolved beer designs they will soon become.

That said, good beers of any design are not hard to appreciate if you set your mind to it and Salmon Creek's Wet Hop IPA is a good beer. It begins with a fresh mandarin orange aroma emitting from a big sudsy head of gentle froth. It is dense ochre with a peachy flavor framed with restrained bittering. The mouthfeel is fluffy with low astringency.

This wet hopped beer is an easy drinking session ale though relatively modest in hop flavor for a professed IPA.