Bitter Woman India Pale Ale | Tyranena Brewing Company

4.35/5  rDev +13.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Presentation: 12 oz short bottle, twist. Label is a nice design , with an old woman prominently displayed. No date.

Appearance: Orange with just a bit of haze, nice off white head with good lacing.

Smell: Resinous hop aroma and just a bit of sweet malt.

Taste: Nice hop flavor with a pleasant bitter finish. Medium bodied and smooth, very drinkable.

Overall impression: A very good IPA - I could certainly drink a bunch of this.

 432 characters

3.88/5  rDev +1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

My first time trying this,poured into a standard pint glass a slight hazed peach color with a tight formed 1/2 finger white head.Aromas were a little light but pleasant,piney/citric hop shows through the most with a tinge of biscuit malt.A solid IPA with generous hops,refreshing citirc qualities with the pine being more subdued,the malt holds well into the finish lending a lightly sweet caramel base.A solid IPA,other than the aromas being a little light there are no complaints here.

 487 characters

4.65/5  rDev +21.1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5

Cool label with a crotchety old lady (Aunt Cal) and an amusing story to go along with it. Pours a nice clear amber orange with a fluffy, bubbly white head on top...chunky thick lacing and some nice yeasties floating on the bottom. Oh me, oh my...what a nose. A plethora of grapefruit, orange and lemony citrus hopiness with piney notes and hints of caramel hard candy. Salivation increases as I continue to inhale its beautiful bouqet.

A bright, vibrant wall of citrusy hops cascades down my throat along with a nice chewy caramel maltiness in the background. Mouth puckering biterness hits the back of the palate with a vengance. It's all about the hops here and I'm loving it....a damn fine IPA.

Mouthfeel is chewy and creamy...has a great body in my opinion. This is a brew I could drink all night.I wish I could get my hands on this one on a regular basis. Hop burps are good...highly recommended to all the IPA fans / hopheads. Many many thanks to kmpitz2 for the chance to partake in this fine offering from Wisconsin.

 1,030 characters

4.42/5  rDev +15.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Poured with a one finger off white head with a orange tinge. Clear body with an orange, copper hue. Head reduced to a few clumps of bubbles.

Intense hop aroma. Loaded with floral, piney and fruity hops. Comes across with some apricot and tangerine sweetness from them. Sweet caramel malt rounds it out.

Loaded with a hop kick to the mouth from beginning to end. Initially quite citrusy with strong grapefruit flavors. Then transitions to a sweeter malt base. Then finishes with a bitter pine resin taste. Nicely put together. Has the hop hit similar to some brewery's DIPAs, but with less alcohol. Its nice to see this much flavor and aroma in a brew w/o the high abv.

Mouthfeel is probably in the medium category. It definately coats well and doesn't seem to want to go away. Crisp and refreshing at the same time to boot. Drinkability is good, some might not be able to handle the bitterness though, but its hard to get this much flavor in a lower abv brew. It lends itself well to those who crave hops but are limited by alcohol content with other beers.

 1,066 characters

2.75/5  rDev -28.4%

4.45/5  rDev +15.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Tyranena Bitter Woman: LOVE the label. Flat-out love it. Lady looks like one of my grandmother's cousins. Received via trade.

Appearance: Brilliant orange/amber with a white head that lasts for freaking EVER. It's still there, 1/2 hour after pouring it. Looks like it needs a good drinking. Don't mind if I do.

Aroma: Freaking A yeah - like rubbing a hop cone over a bowl of apricots. Haven't checked the website on this one, but I'd bet there are Amarillo hops in this one (checks website: HA!!! I knew it!!!). Faint toastiness and nose-hair-tingling bitterness in the background. Solid.

Flavor: if you like bitterness, you'll love this beer. I like bitterness. thumbup1.gif Starts with a dry apricot/red delicious apple fruitiness with a solid bitterness keeping things in balance. The bitterness just lasts and lasts in this one. Around mid-sip the flavor hops blast the tastebuds with an orange/graprefruit attack as toasty malts arrive. Seems strange, but the flavor in the middle is eerily similar to a good Viognier wine - intensely fruity yet dry. This is a very good thing. Finishes bitter, with a lasting citrus and toast flavor that's sooo tasty. Reminds me a lot of the Pale Ale here at Evans/Albany Pump Station - very similar hop profile, but this one's more bitter.

Mouthfeel: Any thicker and it's be cloying - any thinner and the bitterness would be abrasive. Would love to try this if it were around 6.5% - it may be lethal at that point.

Drinkability: Even I could tire of the bitterness after a while, but it'd be a long damned while. This here is case material according to my taste buds. Has that same bracing bitterness as Lake Placid Frostbite Pale Ale, a long time favorite. The lower alcohol content (for an IPA) increases the drinkability.

Overall: I'd have my beer fridge full of this in the summer if I lived in the distribution area. Solid, solid lower alcohol IPA.

 1,916 characters

4.89/5  rDev +27.3%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 5

My friends and I had this at a beer festival last year, I thought it was great but extremely hopped. My friends complained they couldn't get that taste out of their mouth the rest of the night. Over the course of the winter I became a shamelessly addicted hophead, and tried this again. Wonderful full hop grapefruit aroma amber orange color, rich full hop slightly sweet citrus taste,with the best aftertaste I have experienced in my beer drinking days. And surprise, my friends have jumped aboard my hop train and passionately crave this brew themselves. Currently my absolute favorite beverage, hard to find in stores because it sells so quickly, I can only imagine what kissing the Bitter Woman From Hell, what I assume Is Tyranena's Imperial IPA, but seldom available must be like.

 786 characters

3.55/5  rDev -7.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

Golden in color with a decdent head and lace
Earthy hoppyness dominates but a sweet malt is also aparent
This is a fully hop flavored IPA. The hop taste isupfront with a slightly harsh carbonation but it dissipates revealing a large bitterness

The mouth is smooth and it isn't dry
This has a lot of bitter hops for those who don't like it stay clear

 351 characters

4/5  rDev +4.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

3.6/5  rDev -6.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3

12 oz bottle pours a slightly hazed apricot body. Small beige head retains well and deposits some decent looking patch lace. Aroma is all hops, all the time. Pine cone and grapefruit rind scents are rough on the nose and the hops seem raw and green. A faint note of caramel is barely noticed. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Some oily hop resin is also present in the feel. Taste is quite bitter. Bittering hops are in abundance, with pine cone and lemonrind leading the charge. A hint of sweetish malt tries to emerge as it warms but never makes an impact. Way over the top, hop bitterness for my tastebuds. I can see why the hopheads would love this one, but it's out of balance for my tastes.

 717 characters

4.14/5  rDev +7.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

Thanks once again to onecrazymofo for the chance to taste this brew.
Pours a hazy light copper w/ almost a finger of vanilla head....disappears too rapidly.
Nice aroma of citrus, lemon, and an almost cotton candy-like scent.
Very nice mouthfeel w/ bitter hoppiness...slightly numbing the pallet. This is one refreshing brew in which I could enjoy all night. I can taste a nice portion of malt...the hop is nothing overpowering. This beer is very well balanced and one fine IPA I consider myself lucky to try.

 512 characters

4.04/5  rDev +5.2%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3

This was my very first IPA and one of my first real forays into craft beer just a few short years ago. I tried Bitter Woman on a whim and was very surprised by what I was drinking. Keep in mind I was coming off of many years of drinking beers like Rolling Rock, St. Pauli Girl & Heineken nearly exclusively. Back then my idea of "stepping up" was to grab a four pack of Guinness. Boy was I in for a surprise with this one.

Nothing really spectacular about the appearance, but the smell was the first thing to hit me. Damn! Bit me in the back of the tongue before I even took my first drink. I was definitely intrigued.

Slow, even drinks...allowed to warm slightly on the tongue really brings out the bite in this IPA and felt great on the tongue.

Drinkability was very low for me as I was not prepared for what I was getting into. I didn't even know what an IPA was at this point.

I'll definitely need to snag some more of this tasty brew now that my taste buds have matured.

 979 characters

3.88/5  rDev +1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured into a frosted pint glass in LaCrosse, WI:

Appearance: 1 inch head, moderate carbonation, amber in color, clear

Smell: caramel, toasted malt, and citrus hops

Taste: caramel start with a big dose of hops dominated by citrus hops at the end

Mouthfeel: sweet start with a bitter body and increasingly bitter finish, dry end, medium carbonation, light bodied

Overall: A really good IPA. I am really starting to like Tyranena. The bitterness really comes out as this beer warms. I nice combination of citrus and caramel. Both are very pronounced but neither seems overdone. Due to the bitterness one or two is the most I would have in a sitting, but I would get this again if offered to me.

 697 characters

2.5/5  rDev -34.9%

4/5  rDev +4.2%

4.15/5  rDev +8.1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

12oz. squat bottle. Quite humorous blurb about Aunt Cal and her supposed fling with Mr. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. "We brewed our Bitter Woman IPA the way we imagine Aunt Cal may have been: very fruity and intensely bitter."

Poured a very attractive near-clear honey color with a huge amount of very, very fine yeasties that stay suspended in the beer. Very large and impressive layer of slightly off-white head does a great "I think I'll hang out for awhile" impression and left thick and soapy rings around the glass. Very nice.

Aromas are a tanker truck of grapefruit juice dumped on your head. Intense to say the least. Acidic, bitter, harsh, resinous...I love it. Flavor is more of the same, with an acidic grapefruit/citrus front, tart fruit middle, a dash of honey-caramel sweetness just before you get pounded in the face by another grapefruit. I did detect an unpleasant metallic flavor in the aftertaste, and it was so prominent that it knocked 0.5 off of the taste, mouthfeel, and drinkability. It just didn't sit well with me. Just a tad off but very close to being a real favorite for me.

Huge thanks to PhantomVoDoo for this and also to AKSmokedPorter for holding this for me.

 1,200 characters

4.32/5  rDev +12.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Cheers to atron67 for this brew in a trade. Pours with a thin head than goes quick. Dark amber in color. Huge bitter citrus hops smell & taste. This is a hop bomb & not meant to be balanced. ABV is reasonable & this is drinkable for a hop head.

Cheers.

 253 characters

3.43/5  rDev -10.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

This is a very light in color ipa from what i'm used to. Very dark golden color, or very light orange, however you want to look at it. Floaties in the glass. Smells acidic like a grapefruit. Smells caramely as well. Taste is somewhat the same. Grapefruit, caramel, then the bitterness hits you. I should've checked the bottled on date for sure because this doesn't seem very hoppy to me at all. Not a bad flavor, just not very hoppy. Nice carbonated mouthfeel. Feels crisp. Overall, eh, middle of the road here.

 511 characters

4/5  rDev +4.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Overall, a great beer. Pours dark for an IPA with a creamy head that retains through the last sip. Tast is very balanced not overally hopped as advertised by the bottle but hey its from Wisconsin not Ca. If this were available in my area it would have an everyday spot in my fridge alongside 60 minute or Leatherlips.

 317 characters

3.72/5  rDev -3.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

Dark gold to light copper in color with a fingernail of off white head covering the majority of the top. The aroma is faint but pineapple to tropical hop scented. The taste is citrus hops and well balanced light malt. The body is slightly sticky and moderately carbonated.

 275 characters

4.25/5  rDev +10.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

L: Pours brilliant amber to light chestnut under a 1” off-white foam collar that produces prodigious lace. S: Earthy hops with light malts. T: Bold citrusy hops balance sweet malts and fruit with a fine bitter finish. F: Creamy, medium body to a little above, carbonation medium low O: A little sweet but very drinkable.

 322 characters

3.75/5  rDev -2.3%

3.75/5  rDev -2.3%

3.75/5  rDev -2.3%

4.19/5  rDev +9.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Apricot colored with fine particulate matter suspended. A white cap of foam rises up and falls quickly. Aroma is big and fresh and inviting. Very citrusy, not a bitter smell, a little floral. Smooth and even mouthfeel leaves a small tingle on the tongue. Flavor is bright hops, evenly balanced between floral and citrus and pine. A fine malt backbone supports it all. A bitter orange peel lingers. Thanks to BuckeyeNation.

 422 characters