Selection Series, Amarillo
Block 15 Brewing - Southtown Tap Room

 

Look: Medium orange and opaque in the glass with a billowing off-white head that forms a silky blanket and slowly craters away, leaving webs of lacing clung to the glass
Aroma: Navel oranges, tangerines, lime, a little sweet rose, lemon balm, Cara Cara oranges, citrus flowers, and some sweet bready malt
Taste: Lemon, lime, and oranges jump out upon the initial sip and followed by waves of miscellaneous citrus fruits – tangerines, kumquats, and pomelo all in play. Pithy citrus rind and some light floral hop notes present themselves along with wafts of sweet rose and closes with the return of citrus fruit/rind and a surprisingly big and bold hop bite
Mouthfeel: Full, medium-high carbonation, and finishes with a nice light dryness
Overall: This is tasty stuff. I was pumped these folks are doing this series again as I was very impressed with the three I tried from last year’s ones, plus rarely get to try a single-hopped Amarillo beer. As expected, citrus reigns supreme here but the light floral and sweet rose notes evident were new to me from this varietal and quite tasty. Deliciously hoppy and well-made – can’t wait to try more

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a lightly hazy, medidum golden amber with a three finger white head with great retention and thick lacing. Aroma of mildly caramel malt, orange, tangerine, mild grapefruit and pine; faint mixed fruit esters. Flavor is pale malt, orange, lemon, pine and some green melon. Lingering orange rind and pine bitterness in the finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. Although this poured fairly hazy, it's a full-on West Coast style IPA with the appropriate solid bitterness. The malt body is fairly unobtrusive by design to allow the hop flavors to be the whole show here. The classic Amarillo profile of orange citrus and pine are on display and show why this is one of the most popular hops in many West Coast IPAs. I liked this a lot and look forward to more varieties of the Selection series. Block 15 makes many of my favorite IPAs.