RyePA
Ellicottville Brewing Co.

Not retired, at least not last weekend. You know you're drinking a good beer when you intend to try a variety and stick with just one style. Delicious balancing of peppery rye and pale ale hops, balanced body, citrus but not overly fruity nor sweet tasting.

Picked up a growler at Elmwood Consumers Beverage, I believe it was listed at 6%.

Pours a clear amber, sizable white head forms, slowly settles, leaving behind some sticky lacing, nice retention. Smell is very fresh, floral, grapefruit and citrus, quite bready and biscuity, decent malts to hold up decent hops, well balanced. Taste is similar, kind of a tea-like hoppiness, grains and biscuit, nice grapefruit and floral, and a touch of rye spice, solid bitterness and well balanced. Mouthfeel is light to medium bodied with low carbonation, probably from the fill. Solid and drinkable, nothing remarkable but I could see myself drinking quite a few of these.

Poured from the growler into an imperial pint glass a clear bronze with a thinner but pretty well retained white head only spotty lace left as it settled rather quickly,seemed to quite highly carbonated.Much bigger malt profile than expected with the hops more subdued in the nose big caramel and brown sugar with a light leafy/herbal presence,light and grainy mouthfeel but not watery just a tad thin and very grainy.Good balance and complexity on the palate starts out with some malty sweet depth like caramel and brown sugar with a firm toastiness fading into a light rye sharpness as well as some leafy hop leaving a nice aftertase.The rye is is on the lighter side imparting a light sour bite but it all comes together well although as a hophead I was hoping for bigger hops still a pretty good brew.

A new(?) offering from Ellicottville, tapped for growlers today at Consumer's Orchard Park.

Standard copper-orange with a good but thin layer of lace hanging around.

Aroma of mild floral and leafy hops with perhaps some peat in there as well.

Good flavor, the rye adds "something different" to separate this from a typical IPA. Nice balance between sweet and dry, has a nutty, woody flavor up front with a transition to tame but tasty hops. More leafy in the mouth than in the nose, some bitterness is present but not especially strong. Hints of vanilla throughout.

Very drinkable, a tasty but mild-mannered IPA... the sum is more than the parts. One growler may not be enough.