Hop Project #37
Yazoo Brewing Company

 

The pour was decent with a nice amber color and a moderate head of white on the top. Even color and a nice carbonation throughout the session. The aroma was nicely balanced. Light pine hops, hints of bready malts and a light touch of caramel on the nose. Well balanced but nothing really jumping out at me. Smooth, even flavor here with the first sip identical to the last. Light caramel flavors that have overlapped with nice touches of hops. Light to medium body and an easy sessionability made this one easy beer to put down.

Overall very solid and a good choice. Again while nothing spectacular it was a more then decent beer to drink.

a: This was a chill-hazed golden copper color. It poured with a large, uneven, and sticky head.

s: Very much on the malty side. Plenty of pale malt, shortbread, and a little vanilla. There was some muted floral hoppiness as well.

t: Very, very sweet for a beer calling itself hop project. I got some bitterness at the end, but it was largely flavorless. A slightly charred toffee flavor dominated.

m: Body and carbonation are both fine, but the lingering flavor is off.

d: Their Sue kicks ass, but this one, well...

Bottled on week four of September. This batch is fresh-hopped with Sorachi Ace, according to the brewer's blog.

Looks: like pennies. Very clear light copper in color. A one-finger head of tan foam made up of large bubbles fizzles out quickly, becoming a light, lingering ring.

Smells: grainy. Lots of pale malt, cereal, sourdough, earthy yeast, light tart and citrusy hops, lemon and lime peel.

Tastes: super earthy. Lots of pale and munich malt along with some lemon peel. The pithy bitterness swoops in after the swallow and is pretty substantial. Very crisp and dry finish. Gets substantially worse as it warms, tasting almost like bitter club soda.

Feels: prickly. Medium carbonation fizzes the beer up a bit as it moves about. The nice, smooth medium body is pretty hefty for the style, but I like it. Alcohol hits the throat like mild heartburn.

Drinks: dismally. As a rule, I don't drainpour unless the beer really, truly deserves it. I was damn tempted to tip this one out over the drain. Not an enjoyable beverage.

Thanks unclejedi for this IPA. It's notched 4th wk. of Sept.

Pours a brilliantly clear copper/amber color with a gorgeous settled 2" bone white head. Not much in the way of visible uprising carbonation to behold. Nice jagged and splotchy lacing all the way down.

Salty & sour are my initial interpretations of the scent. I swirl my old school dimpled stemmed Busch Bavarian Beer chalice to bring forth more lactic buttermilk notes with a fresh bouquet of hops mingling nicely with this strange sour essence.

The flavor is entirely interesting and unique. Quick, pin pricking jabs of sharp earthy hops attack from the front and then hide very shortly after. The flavor that's left behind is very fleeting, but I'm getting bruised granny smith apples and mineral/earthy rustic tones from these strange Japanese hops. Not much else to note because the flavor is so very short lived.

Mouthfeel is watery and just a tad below medium body. This aspect of the brew was the least appealing. No real carbonation to speak of. Just kinda falls apart and disappears.

Drinkability is okay. The sharp, bitter & chalky elements left behind are actually quite nice. Although the flavor is rather ghostly and these hoppy ghost elements are all that's left behind.

Over a beer I'm glad I tried and even more glad I didn't have to pay for. I've got a couple more brews from this company and I'll drink them with the same open mind I exercised with this offering. The best thing about this beer was it's looks.

Thanks to unclejedi for this bottle as part of an off-reservation Anniversary BIF. Hand-delivered on Darkness Day over a growler of Jackie O's Dark Apparition. Yum.

Poured in anticipation of making dinner after a long work-week in which my partner in crime abandoned me with massive amounts of work so his life would be more balanced. Bastard! No, really, I'm happy for him, he's a nice guy. But still. Pours true truest golden I've seen in a brew. Smell is subdued, more in line with a cool, malty red than an IPA. Virtually hopless.

Hop Project #37 brings just enough bitterness to bear to warrant the IPA label. But it's quickly banished by heavy, hardy malts that seep into every hop cone & make them invisible & untasteable. Sweetness does its tiny dance on my tongue, before the hops reassert themselves on the down-low. Still, not much flavor to them, just a general, chaotic bittering that haunts the malting. Best characteristic of the beer? One could drink plenty of this, without any strong characteristics it would be simple.

Decent enough brew, a cut above mediocre.

Thanks to JR for sending me a few random Hop Projects. Always fun to try out a new IPA. Served in my Surly pint glass.

A - Pours with a finger of off-white head that settles to a partial cap and thick ring of foam, leaving behind a few spots of lace. Lightly hazed golden body.

S - The smell is very malt-forward, particularly for a beer from late September. Notes of treacle, palm sugar, and a slight scotch ale malt character. There's a bit of lemon zest in the periphery that I presume is from the hops. Doesn't smell bad, just very "English".

T - The taste has more lemon zest and herbal notes mixed with a bread-heavy malt backbone. Definitely less sweet than the nose, and with significantly more bitterness in the finish.

M - Feel is solid, although perhaps a touch watery. Medium bodied with a nice oily resinous character in the finish, so the hops are definitely here - you just can't smell them for some reason.

D - This was fairly easy to drink, just extremely off-style and poorly named. If it was marketing as lemony ESB it'd probably get fairly positive feedback. I'll split the difference in scoring.

Thanks to unclejedi for this bottle.

A: The IPA is a brilliant copper color, all shiny and new. The clarity is visually appealing. A foamy head, over two fingers, of craggy foam has left extensive lacing all around the glass. A nice looker.

S: Syrupy with equal doses of caramel and toffee, far sweeter and breadier than I was expecting. For a hop project, there isn't much bitterness to be found. The sweet maltiness is overpowering.

T: More syrupy with a chalky finish. As a brown ale this one may score higher markers. Unfortunately, this isn't a brown ale. The hops that do emerge are piney but second fiddle. A vast vegetal flavor lingers in the finish of each sip, a change of pace from the caramel toffee. The flavor is unusual but it's no worse than many IPAs I've come across.

M: The toffee and caramel upfront, vegetal greenness in the finish. Interesting, not quite an IPA. And sure as shit no sorachi ace in this one.

D: The IPA is drinkable but it isn't really an IPA. Too sweet and no sign of hops, and I love sorachi ace hops. Not a drain pour but not one that I'd dig into again.

Bottle. Pours a clear copper, amber color wti a slight white head that collars around the glass. The aroma is a lot less pronounced than I would have expected. Some spice in the nose along with minimal pine. The taste is not really all that good. Slightly sweet malty floavor gives way to a metallic and bitter hops taste that lingers on. The bitterness lingers on for way to long and is not very becoming. Medium mouthfeel. Having a hard time drinking this one....yup done with this one.

It's back! Our annual Hop Project made with fresh wet hops, straight off the vine and shipped by Fed Ex from Yakima, WA, to our brewery door. This year we featured a rare variety, a Japanese-origin hop called Sorachi Ace. To our knowledge, we are the only brewery to ever use this hop in a fresh hop beer. I'm not going to spoil anyone's experience by telling you what I think - you'll have to try it for yourself! I do think it turned out pretty amazing. Bottled the 4th week of September.


Poured into tulip.

Pours 1/2 finger of white head. Doesn't last long. Color is a clear golden amber.

Taste: Caramel and bready malts. The hops are very bland and grassy. Has a buttery aroma to it.

Taste: It is hard to tell this is an ipa. Tastes more like an ESB. Very malty. Bready and caramel. The hops are grassy and weedy. Not my type of ipa.

Mouthfeel: Bitter and creamy. Medium bodied with a medium amount of carbonation. Ends sticky with a bitterness that doesn't end.

Overall, not a very good ipa. Nothing seemed to work with this beer. I doubt I can finish my glass. It sounded good, but it just didn't do it for me.