CascaZilla
Ithaca Beer Company

Deep amber-red in hue, with as much clarity as you could manage. Nice florally hoppy nose with a little maltiness.

This is a medium-bodied red ale, with the good caramel maltiness of the style and the expected bite of hop bitterness, but it's the hop flavor (independant of the IBU's) that really stands out. It's got a pleasing, fresh, flowery taste that hopheads will enjoy, but it's not an enormously bitter beer. In that sense, it lives up to its promise as a "monstrously hoppy red ale," without being overwhelmingly sharp.

Ultimately, drinkability comes down to hop appreciation, with this one. I could have a couple.

 

Pours a deep amber. Thin tan foam. Hoppy aroma. A great blend of hops and malt to start. A little sweet with a bitter hop finish. We'll balanced. More of an old school brew. One of the best red ales you can get.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pours a big creamy head that doesn't last and a hazy dark orange body. Nose features balanced notes of bread and pine.
The flavor features balance as well, with solid hop notes, including citrus and juicy pine make this pretty enjoyable.
Mouthfeel is stiff and fits this beer well. I wasn't sure what to expect with this one but this is both stronger and tastier than you think at first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm curious about the classification of this beer - Ithaca calls it a "Red India Pale Ale" on the bottle, but that doesn't quite seem accurate to me.

The beer pours a red-tinged brown color with a nice clean head of white foam, maybe a finger's width. It reeks of malt and light hoppiness. The taste confirms - the beer is quite rich with a pronounced malt presence. It's quite creamy and sweet. In a blind test, I'd have called this a red or amber before I would have guessed IPA. Regardless of intent, it's a decent beer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12oz bottle poured into glass.
Look: dark reddish brown with a thin white head.
Smell: floral notes, grapefruit, buisciits, bread.
Taste: floral, then buisciits and bread to more floral citrus notes.
Feel: medium, nothing too weak or strong.
Overall: Solid IPA

Picked up a single bottom at the supermarket. Had never seen this beer before in the area we don't get a lot of Ithaca. Seemed like a fun beer but ended up not being my thing. Poured into a pint glass with a very faint thin head. Very faint hoppy aroma. Malty dry taste that is pretty smooth and easy to drink. Dark cloudy Amber beer that is just very interesting to me.

 

On tap in Baltimore, erroneously listed as "Caskzilla."

Pours more brown than amber, with a decent sized head.

Aroma is medium-strength--a bit surprising, considering its name and ABV--and also, surprisingly, malt forward.

Tastes peaty and nutty up front, moving into a Cascade-heavy middle, and then some grassy nodes on the finish. It does an impressive job of disguising its ABV but overall it's kind of boring.

This was poured into a becher pint glass. The appearance was, obviously a rugged malty dark red to embittered brown color with a thick finger and a half’s worth of white foamy head that roamed around the glass. Rich semi-thick foamy lace presented itself nicely around the glass. The aroma started with fresh bitter piney hop oils. Floral and herbal and earthy hops flow into a rugged malty arrangement. Definitely has that "green" hoppy bitterness about it, with leaves, somewhat dry. The flavor dryly keeps the hops over top of the malts, full and fueling a dry malty rich aftertaste. Quick dry finish. On the palate, this one sat about a medium on the body with a decent sessionability about it. Good level carbonation. Fulfilling dryness hits my tongue. Overall, pretty good amber ale with a bit more hops than expected.