Brewer's Reserve IPL (India-Style Pale Lager)
River Horse Brewing Co.

I think that my local, in-person trader, tone77, must be following in my footsteps or I in his. Lately, he has been the most recent reviewer of several beers that I am reviewing despite our not having seen each other in at least a few months.

The eradication of The Bottle Backlog, while arduous & painful, has had at least one example of The Law of Unintended Consequences. In this case, it has been my ability to conduct a buncha brewery horizontals (same brewery, different beers & styles). This marks the beginning of my next horizontal, that of River Horse BC in Ewing, NJ.

I was actually a little excited to Pop! the cap on this bottle. The caps depict a hippopotamus (hippo = horse, potamus = of or pertaining to water, think of Mesopotamia, the land between two (incredibly historically significant rivers)) & a former, now-retired colleague of mine was a big hippopotamus fan. I will be setting these caps aside for her. I performed a gentle pour, followed by a vigorous in-glass swirl that raised just under two fingers of dense, foamy, tawny head with decent retention. Color was Deep Amber/Light Copper to Copper (SRM = > 13, < 17) with NE-quality clarity. Nose was quite sharp & bitter, a combination of grapefruit & grass/hay, underlain by a biscuity maltiness. Interesting. Mouthfeel was medium, but big for the style. The taste evinced a pleasant bitterness, mostly citrusy, but cut with flavors of grass, hay & freshly-baked bread. Finish was dry with a resemblance more to a Czech Pils than an IPL. Fine by me! Good stuff.

Poured from a brown 12 oz. bottle. Has an orange color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell is of citrus, caramel malts. Taste is resin, citrus, caramel malts are present, a hint of alcohol. Feels medium bodied in the mouth and overall, a bit more bitter than I expect for the style, also more alcohol, an enjoyable beer.

 

 

 

I can understand why people would enjoy this beer. It's hoppy with citrus notes. Nice copper color, floral aromas. But for me, i'm tasting grapefruit. And I hate grapefruit, passionately. So I will not completely knock this beer. But if you dislike grapefruit as I do, this is not an enjoyable beer.

 

I'm gonna start this with a spoiler, THIS is my new favorite River Horse beer. It's my local brewery and have had every beer they've released in the last almost 2 years.

Look - dark hazy orange with a half inch white foam head that stayed my entire 2 beer session.

Smell - not as aromatic as a dIPA but a nice citric IPA smell, as opposed to a pale lager.

Taste - citric hop flavor that reminds me of top IPAs. More of an IPA than a lager in this regard.

Feel - this goes down way too smooth, I can't stop grabbing for my glass. Has a lager smoothness combined with IPA bitterness that is surprisingly refreshing, both taste wise and compared to many other beers.

Overall - I like a lot of River Horse beers. Their pale lager is solid and their IPA is good but not bitter enough to me; this IPL blends the two and ups the ante by boosting the bitterness. I wish they would turn this into a year long released beer rather than just a one-time-only beer.

 

this beer's really good in my opinion. first of all, it's sessionable. secondly, the hops are pleasing. bittering yet floral and candy like. then there's that smooth lager bite. I wouldn't guess the ABV to be more than 6 but according to this it is 7.5. nice beer