West Coast IPA
Granville Island Brewery

Grand hotel , sun peak , British Columbia , Canada.
6.5% Hoppy , malty , lingering hops , piney,
Pours orange with a thin head.
Nice IPA.

 

Clear orange-gold color. Poured a medium-short head that dropped down to a patchy skiff after a minute. Medium-low flow of small bubbles from the bottom of the glass. Left no lacing.

Mostly a vegetal hop smell with some light yeast funk. After a while the funk grew to a faint horse blanket. Swirling the glass kicked up more horse blanket and a stronger hop smell.

The flavor starts off very light with the hop showing up first and strongest. A medium bitter that grows stronger when swallowing. Slightly sweet with very mild malt. Some yeast funk with a very light horse blanket. The aftertaste is a strong burst of bitter hops that quickly fades, ending with a slight tart flavor.

Some tongue tingling. Grows to a coarse foam. Medium body, tending towards a slight gummy or oily feel.

Pretty average. Restrained use of horse blanket as an additional flavor rather than a replacement or the only flavor, which was over used a couple of years ago. The hops are more vegetal than floral.

 

473 mL can from the LCBO; coded Aug 14 2020 and served barely chilled.

Pours a clear golden-amber colour, with more than an inch of soapy, foamy white head erupting from the surface. It falls apart in less than five minutes' time, coating the glass with a webby mess of lacing as it recedes; a frothy collar also remains. The nose is more or less what I'd expect of a west coast IPA - grapefruit and orange, with resiny, floral hops and pine needles, in addition to some prominent bready, caramelized malt character.

It's a serviceable take on the style - I'm tasting bready pale malts and some caramel sweetness, as well as floral hops. Those Cascade hop flavours really come forward nearer the finish: orange, grapefruit, pine resin and an earthy bitterness that persists into the mildly fruity, floral aftertaste. Medium in body, with low-ish carbonation levels that weakly agitate the surface of the palate; feels smooth on the tongue, maybe even a little slick, with average drinkability.

Final Grade: 3.59, a B grade. Granville's West Coast IPA is exactly that - a real life WCIPA, which is almost a blast from the past at this point, what with everyone and their grandmother brewing hazy IPAs these days. It's totally acceptable for what it is - a macro IPA - but it fails to go above or beyond in any manner whatsoever. It's a little better than Creemore's IPA, but there's already a handful of domestic west coast-style IPAs that I return to regularly, and this isn't about to displace any of them. Try it for yourself and see what you think.

473ml can from The Beer Store.
Pours a really nice, clear, non-hazy gold.
Smell of piney, fruity hops. No malt discernable.
Taste and mouthfeel very underwhelming. Drinks like a session IPA.
Not bad, but not great.

 

473ml can - nothing less appealing than seeing a commonly used term like 'west coast IPA' with a 'TM' symbol following it. Fuck me. No, fuck Molson Coors, is what I meant to say.

This beer pours a clear, bright medium copper amber colour, with three fingers of puffy, rocky, and bubbly ecru head, which leaves some decent sudsy flock of seagulls pattern lace around the glass as it evenly dissipates.

It smells of grainy and crackery caramel malt, muted domestic citrus flesh, some hard water flintiness, and plain earthy, floral, and piney green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and bready cereal malt, some orange, lemon, and white grapefruit citrus rind, a damp minerality, and more underwhelming leafy, herbal, and resinous piney hoppiness.

The carbonation is average in its palate-coating frothiness, the body a stoic middleweight, and generally smooth, with nothing really allowed to cause any sort of ruckus at this point in the process, ya dig? It finishes trending dry, the malt kind of bottoming out, while the still muffled citrus/forest-friendly hops keep 'er idling between the ditches.

Overall - yeah, this is an agreeable enough offering, if you were to find yourself on a tied bar-stool, in a tied bar, and could do no better due to circumstance - is what I would have said 10-15 years ago, but less and less now, for good, good reasons. Oh, and take that trademark and shove it where the sun and COVID-19 bullshit don't shine.

 

Clear amber with a nice head with lacing. Mild hop nose. Medium malt body with a pronounced pine hop bite. Smooth feel. Ok but balance a little off.

Pours a nice gold colour with a small-sized head. The smell is grassy and hoppy. The taste is that too, but adds bitterness and caramel notes. Overall a very nice west coast style IPA.
Feb 19 2021