Traverse Red IPA
Boundary Bay Brewery & Bistro

 

 

Served from 22 oz bottle

A — Pours a bright and translucent amber red hue into the glass. There is a creamy saw-dust colored head on-top that leaves behind some nicely consistent lacing.

S — Smell is fairly straightforward, but nice enough. Notes of caramel and bready malts beneath a piney and lemony hop profile.

T — Crisp notes of caramel malt and toasted bread balanced with a piney, citrusy and earthy hop kick.

M — Medium bodied, smooth and crisp.

O — Good overall, not a bad jab at a malt accentuated IPA.

 

Deep crisp copper/amber. Crisp and clear with about a finger of sickly white head. Settles in to an ephemeral boogie of bubbles

Caramel malts. Creamy and pine.
Taste is really woody and pulpy. Pine and straight up like... fir. Wood. Not just the sap, like the wood itself.

Interesting creamy red IPA. Solid and enjoyable, but doesn't really jump out

 

 

Courtesy of @BeerTunes. Poured in to a pint glass.

Pours a red mahogany color, clear with an off-white head.

Smell is a sweet and bitter aroma. smells a little like caramel apples and pine needles.

Taste is similar to the scent. Maybe a hint of licorice . It's not a particularly good flavor.

Not the most drinkable brew either because of the taste. It' just an odd mix of flavors then don;t seem to go real well together.

Overall just OK, Boundary bay has better brews.

16 oz can poured into a snifter.

Pours a very clear red amber color with a cream-colored head that stuck around for a long time. Nice lacing when the head finally receded.

Aroma was very faint, probably due to the thick head. Eventually I detected some malt and fruit - apple or pear? A pretty subtle hop profile.

Taste was bitter up front with some piney hop flavor and bitter on the finish. One of those beers that leaves your mouth a little dry so you need to take another sip...

Feel was medium with good carbonation.

Overall, a very good beer. I'm never sure how to evaluate this red IPA style, but this beer clearly exhibited qualities of both reds and IPA, so to me it was true to its style.

 

This was a chill-hazed amber tinted golden color, it poured with a thick, stiff, rocky head.

Smells of pithy citrus and pine sap with just enough balancing caramel. Smells good but the taste is even better. Huge bitterness and plenty of hop flavor to keep things interesting. Bitter, pithy grapefruit plus some aspirin and resinous pine. There is a hint of a caramel candy tingle as well. Prickly and puckering on the tongue, this was one tasty beast of palate shredder.

Many thanks again to beertunes for sending this fantastic beer my way- Boundary Bay Traverse Red IPA. Those wanting to know if there is a difference between hoppy red ales and red IPAs need look no further than this example.

The aroma starts like like you would expect- pine/orange/dark caramel, but there is also a waft of freshness that elevates it a bit higher. It's gently floral- maybe carnations- and provides a splendid counterpoint. The flavor picks up with the dark caramel and citrus again, but quickly gives way to a huuuugely resinous bitterness assault. To say the finish is lingering would be an understatement. If you don't appreciate bitterness like this, it could be described as the guest who wouldn't leave ;). As it is, though, it's really working for me. The lasting flavors even start to show a hint of spice, particularly vanilla. The bitterness also provides such an angular, bracing slap that you are left startled but wanting another hit. That seems to be the main difference to me- with a hoppy red ale, the flavors quickly become rounded off by the malt base; that is not happening with this one. The malt is there for sure, but the hops are just not letting go of the spotlight.

Pint can poured into a large snifter. No dates on the can that I can see.

Pours dark brownish red with a small beige head. Lots of fine slow carbonation. Smell is surprisingly muted, slightly yeasty, some caramel.

Taste is bitingly bitter up front with a nice coffee bitterness, too. Pine. Nice caramel or butterscotch sweetness. This is actually quite tasty.

Mouthfeel is dry and nice. Overall, quite good.

Thanks go out to Terry for this can.

Red is in the name and red, by golly, is the colour of this IPA. Good head of foam to start off with though it does shrink quickly. Lacing..yep.

I smell pine, I smell spicy hops, flowery, perhaps herbal.

Pine and spicy hops in the taste, bitter?, yes, but there's a smoothness of the bitter going on here. Maybe there's an underlining balancing act coming into play from the malt; I can't detect it but something has to account for it.

The mouth feel is pretty darned awesome.

Yikes, my glass is nearly empty. I really enjoyed drinking this Red IPA.

 

Major thanks to beertunes for another hop gem from PNW

Lovely and clear red amber beer with a righteous three fingers of beige foam that grudgingly recedes to a thick cap and leaves generous slathers of thick, dripping lace. Man! 4.5

Grass and grapefruit, pithy bitter, good caramel, and some nice, slightly rooty herbal, that form a really sweet aroma. 4.0

Taste dominated by more bitter than in the nose. It is a nice assault that is ably assisted by neutral sweet, light caramel. At the end it adds some righteous deep herbosity that cranks this to a driest finish. Though there is a hint of sweet, it is in this bitter component that the only complexity of this hop machine is found, layers of rooty herbal, bitter citrus, pine, and other deep flavors below. 3.75

Highly resinous and lingering, thick, overcarbed, finish that could be a touch less rooty, a touch more clean. 2.0

Those looking for a hop assault might find this in their wheelhouse. Luckily I am one of those and do not ding this for the hop bomb it is, American IPA's, even red, should rip the papillae of your tongue.

Handsome coppery orange color with plenty of coarse foam in the New Belgium snifter. Fruity and piney aroma is interesting.

Starts with a slight malty sensation, but quite thin and very dry. Tremendously bitter. Acidic and harsh. I am thinking of varnish. After a few sips this is just undrinkable.
3.5 3.75 2.5 3.0 2.25

Big thank you to Beertunes for this one!

I'd term the look of this one as inviting. RIch red body is capped by a dense eggshell head that looks about half an in tall.

Nose is slightly earthy, sharply floral, fleetingly citrusy, with just a slight vegetal hint. Rich malt rides alongside the whole way and really serves to enhance the hops I smell.

A nice healthy dose of malt is the first thing I taste, but it's met with pleasantly sufficient bitterness and hop flavor throughout. It's hard for many brewers to get the balance right in beers like this but for my mind this is a job well done. Finish is bitter with lingering hop flavor.

I'm not sure how many I'd want in a row with a beer this malty. But I would definitely buy this from time to time were it not a one off. I'm going to enjoy ever single one in the six pack ... well, aside from the ones the girlfriend drinks!

The beer pours a reddish amber color with good head retention and considerable lacing. The nose is complex, as I pick up some light pine, dry citrus, a hint of cinnamon, maybe some light clove and some sweet malt. The flavor profile replicates the nose in this well crafted beer, with a goodly dollop of hoppy bitterness in the finish. This red IPA leans to the dry side, with just enought malt to balance the spice and hoppy bitterness. Mouthfeel is medium bodied to full, with the alcohol well integrated into the flavor profile. The can doesn't actually list the abv., but if I had to hazard a guess, I would peg this somewhere in the 7% to 8% range.

An interesting take on the style. Count me a fan!

Pours a bright orange with a reddish tint. Creamy head of khaki foam that fell off slow enough and left some lace. Clarity at first but on my second pout no so much clarity. Serene beer with a lovely light that shines out from the glass.

Nose is a substantial and surprising malt . Brown sugar and a bit of caramel. A lovely hop herbal that I would say is right on the fence between sweet and pungent. A lovely citrus fruitiness, orange and a bit of lemon, and a shy pine.

Taste is a wonderful surprise. The malt scent on the nose is formidable. Substantial you are expecting a ton of malt. BUT while it has all the qualities in the taste that it had in the nose . . . the light brown sugar, the light caramel even a bit of what you might call bread, it drinks very lightly. The lightest shade of medium. The fruit is an all around fruitiness that is citrus with a bit of tartness. A graceful pine and a lovely stickiness and resinous finish. It's dry. It has a good bitter that accumulates and lasts and lets you taste some woodiness int eh hop herbal, some breadiness in the malt that tantalizing bit of brown sugar. The alcohol but grazes the palate lightly at the very last minute of the swallow.

I love it! This beer had a boldness in each of it's aspects that dis not run away with the entire beer. It was a well executed mouthfeel on a malt character that could have been much heavier.

Thank you @Beertunes for the chance to try this great beer =)