Frank's Wild Rye'd India Pale Ale
Sand Creek Brewing Company

 

Reviewed from notes.

Pours out a fairly standard amber color with two fingers of sand colored compact foam that lasts for about two minutes, leaving behind some decent rings of lacing on the glass. Medium-light levels of carbonation and body thickness with a slightly crisp finish.

Smells of coriander, pine resin, and medium amounts of strawberries, melon and caramel sweetness. Lighter floral and peppery hopping aroma elements do appear as the glass warms up, but the aroma is way too sweet and malty for an DIPA. A strong ale, perhaps, but certainly not a DIPA.

The flavor is a bit more on target with a spicy dry leafy hopping central focus that works in tandem with pine and a drier rye breadiness which is agreeable enough but suffers somewhat from a lack of further complexity beyond a simple rye spice and pine resin with herbals on the side. The ABV is only partially hidden, it gets rather warm about halfway through the glass.

It needs some polishing and fine-tuning, but it's not really a terrible beer either. Remove the strawberry sauce from the nose, add some citrus depth to the flavor, and I'd be much more into this one.

 

resiny/dank hops with a strong malt bill, solid rye notes. Smells sweeter than it drinks. An above average Midwest DIPA.

filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler,

A - Crystal clear copper body. Slightly off-white head struggles to build more than a finger high even after an aggressive pour, however it's retention is quite impressive as is it's creamy, dense texture.

S - Sweet caramel candies are the most prominent note, not quite what I was expecting for a "double" IPA. Maybe some tropical fruits in there as well.

T - Tastes a lot more like an IPA. Got a slap in the face of bitterness with a STRONG hemp flavor. I feel like I just drank the murky water out of my roommate's unusually shaped bob marley-themed glass vase. Although I never saw any flowers in it.... Anyway, where was I - Ah yes. What I mistook for tropical fruits pulls through with resiny pine and that lovely herbal hemp flavor. Malts are in there somewhere, but you might need to hire a P.I. to find them. Alcohol is just barely perceptible if you are really looking for it.

M - About on par for an IPA, a touch hot on the carbonation.

O - I actually loved Wild Ride (one of my favorite IPAs) even though it doesn't have rave reviews around here by any means. This beer is just a continuation on that, and I'm glad to see they made a solid IPA that didn't turn into a big syrupy mess like many other IIPAs on the market.

 

 

 

A - a nice reddish gold, 1/2" of head with great lacing

S - malty and fruity.. smells like berries, and i'm assuming the malt is rye! a bit of sweetness (caramel/molasses), orange

T - tastes like roasted grains, a bit rubbery from bittering hops, black coffee taste on my tongue as an aftertaste. hints of brown sugar (maybe?), caramel, honey

M - a bit heavy but fizzy which makes it a little easy to go down the hatch. thick bodied for the style at least!

O - a very nice example of a rye p.a. - kind of a "notebook recipe" i suppose, but there is nothing wrong with that!

 

 

Pour shows an amber colored body that leaves some lacing.
The aroma is nothing like your typical DIPA, there is a prominant sweetness, and the rye is very noticeable, very strong malt bill for the style. The hops are coming through but getting lost on the way.
The flavors are no more unbalanced then the aroma was, still rye spices with some mild pine resins hiding inside. There isn't much bright clean hop smack as you want, rather sweet. i wonder how this would have came out with half the malt bill and a single ipa? Maybe adding enough malts to attenuate into a double is the culprit here, just too much malt.

 

Served in a Walter Payton shaker pint glass.

I wonder if Frank's last name is Toad... Anyway, this stuff pours a mostly clear amber-orange topped by a finger of cream-tan foam and populated by a herd of large floaties. The nose comprises buttery biscuit, light caramel, spicy greens (not entirely unlike cilantro), and iceberg lettuce. The taste holds notes of dry pine, rye spice, balsa, mixed greens, grass, orange peel, light lemon zest, and rich caramel. This is a decent step-up from the smell, that's for sure. The body is a light medium, with a light moderate carbonation and a pretty dry finish. Overall, a nice little RIPA, one that doesn't really pop, but something that's fairly enjoyable regardless. Something tells me it's on its way downhill, though...

12 bottle into a snifter

Pours a ruddy copper with a soapy cover. Unfortunately, the highlights...used loosely...end here.

Smells of hot, sweaty cantalope run amock, like Al Joltsen at the Winter Garden. After tonight, he couldn't get arrested in this town.

Gorilla's Choice meets British Petroleum via Amalgamated Copper.

Feels better in the sink than down the hatch. I really don't understand or like this beer. Davey Jones Locker here she comes.

Really low-budget packaging on this one. 12 oz bottle. I enjoyed the Wild Ride IPA, hopefully this one is similar.

It pours a very reddish color for an IPA. It has a frothy white head that doesn't leave much lacing.

The smell is super sweet and malty, there is some citrus in form the hops, but it smells like a malt bomb.

The flavor thankfully is a lot better than the smell. Isn't an insanely hoppy brew but it does have some nice elements. Up front it is sweet, tropical and citrusy, and it finishes with a dry piney bitterness that really lingers and keeps you coming back for more. It has an alcoholic bite to it as you go, but it isn't cumbersome.

I was worried by the smell and appearance, but this one is a pretty solid double ipa.

Poured from a bottle into a pint glass. It pours a translucent copper/orange color. A 3/4 inch very light tan head forms and reduces leaving a nice lacing.

The nose seems almost like a fruit bread with some definite citrus. The raw earthiness combined with a somewhat malty sweetness allow the components to okay, but still hindered.

The taste again starts out on the bready-side but moves into that earthy rye components followed by the citrus hops. Not as much caramel as I felt like was present in the nose.

The mouthfeel is medium bodied and quite textured but smooth. Carbonation is adequate, but slightly limited. A very nice dryness lingers.

I am not sure what I expected, but this was very good. I do think the drinkability is slightly limited by the hopping, simply because the palate loses some of its strength as I go through it.

Toasted orange hued, slightly hazed and topped with a moderate stack of ecru suds, one that sags somewhat quickly and leaves big patches of lacing.
Wet dough nose, though it does hint at nutty rye. Backed with sawdust, and a squall of bitter, reedy, pulpy grassiness. Some orange peel shows up as it warms. It's a weird nose, to say the least.
Doughy again as it scrapes against the teeth. It's like a big, wet piece of rye bread. Generally nutty, and vaguely spicy (at least malt-wise). Then the hops make this explicitly spicy. Tons of dried herbs and grass and florals, and dried citrus, but far more bitter than flavorful. It's almost puckeringly bitter, but actual hop flavor isn't all that high. Alcohol adds to the bitter melee, as it rears up, just a tad, on the swallow.
Round, obtuse bodied, but not clingy or obese. The carbonation, low as it is, stays the course, giving it a gentle levity, which it absolutely needs. This seemingly stumbled-upon mouthfeel coupled with the nearly brutal, slaking bitterness actually creates something that is more drinkable than it should be, if only because it increases thirst with each sip.
I don't like this very much, but I also don't hate it. The hopping doesn't work. All bitterness, no flavor or aroma. The rye base is solid enough. Reconsider the hops, and this might have some promise.

Frank Booth from Blue Velvet might even put down a PBR for one of these... on second thought, maybe not.

Saturated "tropical sunset" shade of orange, slightly hazed, two fingers of off-white eggshell foam that slowly receded. Second pour yielded 4 fingers of foam to the rim that left sticky lacing all around. Concentric striated rings formed, which was pretty impressive.

Honey, melon, grapefruit rind, resiny hop aroma.

Spicy element in the taste, meshes well with the boatload of hops. Citrusy, bready, spicy. Firm bitterness. Slight sweet melon, dried apricot, and bitter grapefruit rind. Malt is evenly matched with the hop content, this is a burly brew. Bittersweet, leafy herbal hops, with a solid dose of fruitiness.

Low carbonation, slick and resinous, bitterness lingers for awhile. Had two of these, easily. Not bad for a DIPA that's likely 8% or higher. Fairly unique, and likely the best beer from Sand Creek out there.

A. Pure amber appearance with a hint of cloudiness. Pours up with a nice white head. Leaves lots of sticky lacing.

S. Caramel malt and some rye on the nose. Not the most expressive smelling beer but at least it is pleasant.

T. Lots of flavor packed in this brew - bready malt starts things off followed by a quick transition to the rye. Plenty of hop bitterness on the back end to finish things off. The bitterness is on the edge for me - any more and it would be off putting.

M. Good creaminess and overall feel. Medium bodied with adequate carbonation.

D. This is well made beer and drinks quite easily. For a DIPA, it hides its alcohol well. Sand Creek is a brewery I usually pass over but this beer caught my eye. I am glad I picked up a 4-pack. Nicely done and highly recommended if you like hops and rye.