Bonobo Session IPA
CB Craft Brewers

 

 

Apparently still brewed; bottle date best by 2/2017 and still listed on the CB website as a year-round brew. Pours a clear, golden yellow with a light head that sticks around. Nice citrus notes and a hoppy, bitter finish. For a session IPA, this is nice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sample at a tasting. Poured out of the bottle, this looks a lot more like a berliner weisse than an IPA; not so much pale as it is piss yellow, and a bit cloudy at that. Not much on the nose, a hint of pineapple, none of the lemon that the brewery rep spoke of. Very dry, and thin bodied, but not nearly as thin as most sessions.

 

Middle of the road Session Ale. Poured the golden color with a finger of white foam on top. Had a slight hoppy aroma, was mild in the taste and light on the tongue. Overall a drinkable beer, but if looking for a session to drink several of, I would pass on this one for something with more of a hoppy kick.

We crack a pair of bottles, pouring into our Great Lakes pints. It shows a pale, cloudy yellowed straw coloring, and sports a foamy, frothy finger tall head of white bubbles. Lacing is toothed. As stated, the beer is a bit cloudy in clarity, and carbonation appears rather active. The nose is incredibly mild, but remains rife with adjuncty, white ricey grain, with wet straw, wheat crackers, salty playdough chemicals, somewhat pungent hoppiness of grassy and high citric varietals, shaved plastics, glossy photograph paper, and grape seed oil. The taste begins innocuously enough with raw radish bite, white peppercorns, herbal and bittering citric hoppiness, simple pale washed grain, soap suds, muddy bitters, lemon juice and seed, fusel acetone, tweed, and mineral water, but by the peak of the sip into the final swallow, you get nearly nothing but the immense salty metallics of old penny copper. The finished aftertaste is of raw purple cabbage, filthy kale, and dried lime wedges. These mildly offensive touches fade ever so slightly with warmth of the beverage, and as the beverage warms you. The body is relatively thin, but frothy enough with each glug. Carbonation is prickly and volcanic. For a self-proclaimed session IPA, the drinkability sits below average.

Overall, this is certainly not as sessionable as many in its class. We certainly love the theme of this local series, with this being the decidedly younger cousin of the famed “Caged Alpha Monkey”, but unfortunately, we just didn’t find it that exciting or relatable. The metallics at the finish are probably its most enjoy-limiting aspect. This phenomenon is likely a result of overcooked hops or the base of whatever stock yeast they used. We have four more of them, and we’ll happily indulge in the rest, but it lacks that spritely kick blended between light grainy sweetness and even-keeled, but solid hoppiness.

 

 

 

 

I love monkeying around

This tastes like a green pepper. What the hell? Awful.

Mediocre session ipa. Doesn't have any "hop-pop," the exact opposite of founders all day. Flavor is crisp and clean, but even my kolsch had a more reminiscent taste than this. Overall flavor was decent, however I prefer their Alpha Monkey over this.