The Hop Lab Idaho 7
Ithaca Beer Company

 

By looks, here's another hazy that taste and body doesn't matter. An overly foamy mess on top of an emptied pint can into a clear glass liter mug gives it away. This is getting repetitively annoying, brewers that emphasize the hops and ignore the malt body, yet still call it an IPA. As expected, the foamy mess recedes quickly, unevenly and unattractively, leaving scant glass lacing. The color of the ale is a rich and relatively dark amber and it's cloudy, in a reasonable way. There's little aroma, agreeing with the eyes that there's a lack of barley malt in the mix. This drinks thinly and although that was expected, it's disappointingly so. There's really no IPA body here. The hops aren't great, but without a solid malt backbone to compliment them, they stand out as somewhat tropical, but more bitter than complex. Drinkable, but certainly close to almost everything else being brewed as a hazy now .

A good NE Style IPA. Pours darker (lightly hazy gold) than most of the straw yellow NE IPAs. Bought a 16 oz can and poured it into a pint glass. This beer features a big white foamy head with good lacing (bands of foam and some additional filmy lacing). Head retention is pretty good!!!! Touches a lot of NE IPA bases.....tropical fruit, citrus, a touch of dankness and mild bitterness. Mouthfeel is good. No annoying alcohol presence, crisp with enough bitterness to keep it interesting. Pretty good!!!! My first sample ( I think) of Idaho 7 hops,