Hop Project #26
Yazoo Brewing Company

Pours a nice dark copper, with a 1 inch head and nice lacing throughout, looks very enticing. Smell is actually a bit malty and spicey, not the usual strong hops I would expect from a strong ABV IPA. Tatse was alright, not overwhelming, very dry finish. Again I mostly taste the malt back of this one, the hops are underplayed.Good brew, not the strong classic american ipa I normally love, but very different, and a must try.

Thanks to abuliarose for sharing this with me and to paulv for the hookup. I'm always looking forward to a good IPA.

Pours a robust, hazy, caramel color with a thick, frothy, white head on top. Lots of big bubbles in the foam. Sticky lacing left on the glass.

Grassy floral notes on the nose from hops, mixed with sweet, caramel malts. Smells like it has a good malt backbone.

Flavor consists of sweet, rich, caramel malts followed by a decent bitter kick from the hops. Fairly well balanced between the malts and hops. Hops come on strong in the middle, but even out with the malts on the finish. A bit resiny and bitter in the finish.

The body is quite good, especially for a regular IPA. Fairly beefy, lingers on the malty side. Smooth, yet spiced with hop bitterness and ample carbonation.

Drinkability is good. This is a tasty IPA and the ABV is unnoticeable. Putting down a pint or two of this would be no problem.

Overall, this the second Hop Project I've had from Yazoo and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. The beer has a nice hop kick in the middle and a decent amount of malts if you like a more balanced IPA. If I had easy access to beers I'd probably pick one up every time they release a new variation. Worth getting your hands on some.

Package arrived today from JohnQVegas and I loved the SUE so much that I had to dive into this one.

A: Pours a nice shade of orange/amber with a nice white head. Little retention with some spots of lace.

S: Aromas of bold caramel malt, fruity esters, and citrus and pine hops.

T: Nice strong malt backbone here. Sweet candy malts that last through middle. The hops then kick on. More sweet pine than citrus, but there is a bit of citric bite in the finish.

M: Medium in body, smooth, light bite in the finish.

D: Pretty good. Solid IPA, but not as well crafted as SUE which was great!!

Thanks to travita for sharing this bottle.

The beer pours a cloudy orange-yellow color with a white head. The aroma is piney with some citrus hops. The flavor is very bitter pine hops. Definitely a hop forward American IPA. Medium mouthfeel and medium carbonation.

Thanks to PaulV for sending me this one in a BIF.

A: The pour is a slightly hazy amber color with a thin off-white head and some nice rings of lacing.

S: The nose is plenty hoppy with some good citrus notes and some bready malt. There isn't too much in terms of pine.

T: While the pine was missing from the nose, it's certainly present on the tongue. The flavor is bitter and piney through and through with some nice citrus and perhaps even tropical fruits.

M: The body is medium with a tingly carbonation.

D: A nice IPA from a brewery that I'm pleased to try some beers from. Not quite as good as the west coast IPAs we've been spoiled with.

Bottle, bottled 2nd week of February, 2010, into Sam Adams sensory glass. Cascade, Nugget, Amarillo, and Centennial were the hops used in this edition of the Hop Project series.

Pours a brilliant clear copper color, so red that there's almost pinkish tones coming through the golden amber. dense off-white head on top with nice lacing settles into a thin cap eventually.

Nose is pungent, floral, some sweet grapefruit mingling with some strikingly clear caramel. Really nice.

Taste is more big, floral hops up front, growing very pungent towards the finish, with a light caramel sweetness (just a bit toasty) coming from the malt base, drying out as a result of the big, green, oily hop character.

Mouthfeel is a bit oily, soft bit firm carbonation bite massages the tongue with a medium body.

Drinkability is hurt just because of the pungency of the bitterness. I'm generally a huge fan of the super clean, super dry, huge-hop-flavor-without-mega-bitterness west-coast style IPAs, ala Alesmith IPA, Sculpin, PtE, etc; the pungent bitterness towards the finish tended to wear on me after awhile. Still quite the tasty brew this fresh, just not quite my style of IPA.