Scratch Beer 12 - 2008 (IPA)
Tröegs Brewing Company

bottle shared by psprings...

bright sunshine colored yellow has a bit of haze and a soft white head with lots of spotty lacing.

it smells really fruity... grapefruit, peach and orange pith with some caramel and a light bitterness.

the flavor is rather pith-y as well but obviously well past it's prime as it lacks a punch or any real hoppy dryness. it's pleasant nonetheless with notes of flowers and caramel with a spicy finish.

it is medium bodied with a nice creamy texture and surprisingly dry mouth feel.
6/3/6/4/15/3.4

 

 

 

 

My very first beer at Deuane's basement clear out tasting is a three year old Scratch IPA. You are just lucky I needed to tick this one. Poured into a taster glass, a few times over.

A - Pours light hazy amber yellow with a nice one and a half finger tall white head leaving sticky rings of lace down the glass.

S - For being three years old this one has held up surprisingly well. Smells of pine, grassy hops, dulled citric fruit, sweet caramel malt, and some dried bread crumbs.

T - Starts off with a nice dose of sweet caramel malt quickly giving way to a mix of surprisingly bitter grassy hops, dulled citric rind; most notably orange and grapefruit; and a bit of chewy day old bread crumbs. The finish is a mix of light hop bitterness and some sweet caramel malt.

M - Medium body and flavor with moderate carbonation. Dry, chewy, feel with some lingering hop bitterness in the finish.

O - While this one is obviously past its prime it is still pretty good actually. The malts have become the dominate force but the hops are still lurking in the shadows, which shocked me considering it is now three years old. Thanks for this Scratch beer tick go out to Deuane and the luck of the draw.

Thanks to Greg for this one.

A: The beer pours a cloudy orange color with a small white head.

S: A surprisingly citrusy aroma to this beer. Some nice tangerine and orange notes. Sweet fruits and a bit of oxidation, brown sugar, and sweet pale malts round out the aroma.

T: Good citrus peel flavor and a surprising bitterness. Some tangerine and peaches give a nice sweetness, which is not overrunning the beer. I find that surprising given the fact this is three year old IPA.

M: Medium in body with a low to medium carbonation.

O: Certainly not ideal, but this is still pretty good. Nice fruit and pine flavors.

Massive Mega Scratch Beer Tasting @ the Meat Meet, 8.21.2010. Thanks Unclejedi!

Scores reflect how the beer is drinking NOW, and not when released.

Light gold, no head, no bubbles! Some faded East-coast citrus hops here in the nose (and flavor), slight bubblegum, orange zest. Goes down easy. Wet. Powdered sugar. Drinks alright, tho the hops have gone the way of the Dodo. Fun to try, but nothing special.

12oz bottle received in trade with Hophead 101. Thanks. Poured into a Bruery tulip.

A - Pours a hazy, translucent golden orange with about 2 fingers of dense white head...good staying power, fades eventually to a low layer of bubbles with some nice lacing left on the glass.

S - Honey sweetness. Citrusy hops - oranges, candy sugar, apples, yeast, bready in the background.

T - Taste mirrors the aroma pretty well, honey sweet up front with some citrusy hops - oranges fading away to grapefruit.

M - Medium bodied with medium carbonation too. Honey sweetness coats the entire mouth, bringing along with it some bitter hops. Slides over the tongue very easily, if anything maybe a touch on the oily/slick side.

D - Well balanced IPA, although one definitely that has some age on it. Would love to have tried this fresh, but trying it at all is very welcomed. Hops are subdued but still very nice. Good flavor and enough bitterness. Reminds me a bit of a Hopslam with some age on it...which some people prefer.

A - pours a murky orange color with no foam, just some big bubbles resting on top.

S - citrus, orange & grapefruit along with some light malt aromas

T - orange/grapefruit/lemon flavors up front and some faint malt flavor and a nice bitter finish

M/D - a little thicker than I was expecting, but the overall taste is really good. The bitterness at the end was very pleasant.

Served in a Unibroue tulip glass.

Pours a semi transparent copper color with a 1.5 finger white foamy head with rolling pillows. Reserved yeast from the pour (easily detected on bottom prior to consumption).

Metallic hoppy aroma.

Fruity sweet flavor with a dry, mildly bitter finish. Full mouthfeel.

If I didn't know this was an IPA, I'm not sure IPA would be my first guess. Aroma yes, but the flavor has appealing fruitiness and not the sharp, clean bitterness associated with most IPA's.

I suspect some of the flavor is coming from the slight amount of yeast dregs that made it into the glass. There's a bready fullness and my only guess is from the yeast.

Continued thin head and scattered lacing 3/4 of the way through.

A very nice, unique (in my book) take on an American IPA

bottled in 08, not sure when. i thought this was a tripel so i slept on it. appears to have held up alright.

pours very murky, looks like a hefe. thick inch high head with nice retention.

no real scents that i detect. VERY faint malts and even more faint citrus hops.

very bitter flavors. bitter hop from start to finish, light biscuit flavor from malts but i stress on the light. finish has a citrus flavor, close to white grapefruit with maybe a hint of red.

very full with nice carbonation that tingles through the finish and leaves your gums tingling as well.

excellent drinkability. very refreshing and a lot of fun. great for any hop head.

the pour was decent but the smell was non existent. i was worried this would be a bomb but the flavor is excellent. this is my 2nd offering from troegs and by far will not be my last.

I've been trying to get through the last of my mixed case of scratch beer. This is the last #12 in the box. Poured from a 12 ounce bottle into my shaker glass. Appears a clear apricot color with about two fingers of off white foam. The head leaves a slight lace on the inside of my glass with each sip. The nose is filled with fruits such as grapefruit, orange, tangerine, and lemon. Tastes of pine, caramel malt, grapefruit pith, lemon, orange and a bit of alcohol. There is a pleasant bitterness throughout - from start to finish. Medium in both body and carbonation. Decent drinkability with a nice balance of malt and hops.

Got this beer from the BIF mday.

Poured into a pint glass at 45 degrees.

Appearance: The color of the beer is a amber color with an orange hue. There is a one finger head that is white and foamy. There is some effervescence in the beer. The clarity of the beer is hazy.

Nose: A nice rich hops with citrus, pine and floral esters. There is a subtle malt sweetness that lurks behinds.

Taste: A rich citrus grapefruit flavor with some pine and floral. The malt is there but not as strong.

Overall: The mouth feel is carbonated and astringent. The body of the beer is medium and the finish is bitter. This beer is not as balanced as hop slam the grapefruit flavor grabs your tongue and hold on tight. The beer to me is slightly unbalanced. Hopslam has more balance but I feel there is more hops in this beer.

Good head. Light in regards to color, but thick enough to prevent absolute translucence. The head is full, at least a 1/4" thick, and kinda bubbly. It looks like a good beer.

The smell is actually okay to me--surprisingly good to me considering the color. I'm working on detecting special intricacies in beer aromas, so I'll offer this for the Scratch 12: pine cone, citrus...kinda west coasty for a beer brewed and bottled in Harrisburg, PA.

Still, I don't like the taste. The aftertaste is even worse. Pine cones? Did I get it right? I taste it and then I go back to my smell rating--I feel certain that this beer tastes worse than it smells. Since I initially appreciated the smell, I'm taken aback by how I want to reduce the smell score every time I taste this brew. I really just don't even like it. I think it's cool that the brewery has released some of these scratch concepts--I get it and all, but I can easily understand why these beers didn't make it into full production.

The mouthfeel sucks. The longer I let it rest in my mouth, the more it transitions into a watery, sorta piss-like taste. Just for clarity's sake, I haven't tasted it (thus "piss-like"), but I suspect piss would taste slighty similar if chilled.

The more I taste this beer, the more I want to reduce every rating. This is the second one I had--the first I shared with friends. It was unremarkable the first time but, by God, this time I'm convinced it sucks! I'm halfway thru the beer and trying to determine how to proceed with my rating. I guess I'll just stick with how I see it: it started out looking purty good but when it gets down to it, this beer just gets worse and worse. I'm not really a drain-pour kinda guy, but I'd just as soon never see this particular choice ever again.

You can bet I won't take this one home to mama! In a twisted sorta way, I'm back where we started;)

got this one from DrJay as part of the EDM BIF. thanks jay!

12oz bottle. sampled jan 30/09.

pours hazy dark amber, not quite orange, with a small cap of white head. the head drops fast and leaves a bit of spotty lace.

aroma is good. grapefruit, orange, bit of tangerine. pine. bread and biscuit. light alcohol. light caramel. hint of toasty character too.

taste is good. medium bitterness level. pine, grapefruit, orange peel, and tangerine. light alcohol. nice light caramel sweetness and a solid malty base of biscuit, cracker, and white bread to balance things out.

mouthfeel is good. medium body with the hops lending a bit of a dry finish. just under medium carbonation level.

drinkability is good. nicely balanced. good depth of both malt and hops. this one was probably pretty fantastic when fresh, but still damn good now.

12 oz bottle, big thanks to grub for sharing.

Pours a cloudy amber yellow, somewhat golden, thick white head forms, drops to a thin ring around the glass, drops a ton of lace, nice layer, good retention, looks nice. Smell is good, lots of grapefruit and pineapple, floral, nicely hoppy, some toast and caramel malts, honey, orange peel, very nice and balanced. Taste is similar, pineapple first, some grapefruit, floral, citrus rind, caramel, biscuit and toast, honey, wheat, quite dry in the finish, sweet fruit, lots of citrus. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with medium carbonation, very nice and balanced. A pretty solid IPA, nice hoppiness but doesn't stand out. Thanks Russ!

Thanks to Hojaminbag for the chance to try this one. Love me some Scratch beers.

Poured a 12oz bottle into my New Belgian globe. This beer pours a hazy lemon with a rather small, white head leaving just a minimal amount of lacing for an IPA. The head retention is also rather poor. The beer does have quite a bit of suspended yeast in it. Quite a bit more then I would have expected. The aroma is a bright shining bouquet of lemons. Probably the most lemony smelling beer I've had the pleasure of wafting. It definitely is a natural lemon aroma not a fake astringent cleaner lemon, which you find in some beers. The taste is a bit maltier then I expected. It has a nice pale malt kick with a just a kiss of hops. Definitely not overpowering on the hop side. Also there is a slight medicinal aftertaste that lends bitterness to the flavor profile. The mouthfeel is light bodied, and not as resiny as many IPA's. This is a good IPA, but not as good as many of the other Troegs Scratch series I've had the pleasure of trying.

12oz bottle

found this bottle buried in the back of my fridge... score!

Scratch 12 pours a slightly rusty hazy orange brown color with a medium sized, strong white head atop the brew. Cottony nose, bright juicy hops, some grassiness and hop oil bitterness as well. Wonderful flavor, bright fruity hops, bold bittering hops and a solid and slightly sweet pale malt structure. Lighter than medium bodied and alive with carbonation, i could most definitely session this one. Damn good IPA from Troegs.

A= Pours an appetizing yellow color with a nice head rising out of it leaving behind minimal lacing.
S= I get pine hops followed by pineapples followed bydelicious grapefruit
T= pine hops and grapefruit. The pineapple sweetness comes through a little. There's a lot less hop flavor than I expected
M= smooth and creamy with a dry finish
D= very high. Thanks to kadonny for this one. Just a fabulous beer. Not over powering at all but a great example of an ipa