Lupu-Luau IPA
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton, Delaware, United States 🇺🇸
IPA Regular|
Score
6.58
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The story of Lupu-Luau began when Sam was hanging outside with co-workers during an overly-sunny day. One present co-worker in particular was lacking heavily in the melanin department, to put it lightly. A friendly joke about a total tan aversion led to this legendary comment, “You can say it, Sam, I’m pale as f**k.” The brewer in Sam thought that would make a cool name for a super pale beer. From there the wheels started turning and the iterative R&D process began.
Sam set out to make a hazy, overly pale beer but the test batches weren’t quite there yet. However, during that process he found out how great coconuts work in an IPA and decided that the new goal was to make an IPA using as much coconut as possible. We started with a combination of Pils malt with flaked barley, rolled oats, and malted and raw wheat to get it all hazy. Then we introduced coconuts three ways by adding toasted coconut, dehydrated coconut water and an experimental hop variety that provides a unique coconut & woody aroma.
The result? A lupulin-loaded, coconut-centric ale. Our Lupu-Luau IPA!
Sam set out to make a hazy, overly pale beer but the test batches weren’t quite there yet. However, during that process he found out how great coconuts work in an IPA and decided that the new goal was to make an IPA using as much coconut as possible. We started with a combination of Pils malt with flaked barley, rolled oats, and malted and raw wheat to get it all hazy. Then we introduced coconuts three ways by adding toasted coconut, dehydrated coconut water and an experimental hop variety that provides a unique coconut & woody aroma.
The result? A lupulin-loaded, coconut-centric ale. Our Lupu-Luau IPA!
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7.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
12 ounce bottle into signature tulip glass, bottled on 7/8/2017. Pours very hazy/cloudy deep golden amber/light orange color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense and fluffy off white head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings around the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of coconut, lemon, orange, pineapple, peach, pear, apricot, mango, melon, passion fruit, papaya, citrus peel, light pepper/pine, wheat, cracker, lightly toasted biscuit, herbal, wood, and floral/grassy earthiness. Nice and pleasant aromas with good balance and complexity of citrus/fruity/earthy hops, coconut, and bready malt notes; with solid strength. Taste of big coconut, lemon, orange, pineapple, peach, pear, apricot, mango, melon, passion fruit, papaya, citrus peel, light pepper/pine, wheat, cracker, lightly toasted biscuit, herbal, wood, and floral/grassy earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel, woody, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of coconut, lemon, orange, pineapple, peach, pear, apricot, mango, melon, passion fruit, papaya, citrus peel, pepper, pine, wheat, cracker, lightly toasted biscuit, herbal, wood, and floral/grassy earthiness on the finish for a while. Very nice complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/fruity/earthy hops, coconut, and bready malt flavors; with a great malt/bitterness balance, and zero astringent hop flavors after the finish. Light-moderate increasing dryness from bitterness. Medium carbonation and body; with a very smooth, moderately bready/grainy/sticky, and lightly resinous balanced mouthfeel that is nice. Zero warming alcohol for 7.3%. Overall this is a very nice fruited IPA. All around nice complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/fruity/earthy hops, coconut, and bready malt flavors; very smooth and easy to drink with the modestly bitter/drying finish. Pretty unique and interesting, but it works really well. The coconut flavors blend nicely against the fruity/earthy hop character; with a nice balancing malt backbone. Never aggressive or overly bitter; but has plenty of nice dryness. A very enjoyable offering.
Tried
from Bottle
on 09 Aug 2017
at 19:43
7.5/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7
12 ounce bottle. Hazy pale gold color. Frothy white head. Nice lacing. Notes of coconut milk in nose. Dry bittersweet malt flavor. Creamy mouthfeel. Warming alcohol. Notes of coconut and spicy hops. Decent.
Tried
from Bottle
on 08 Aug 2017
at 22:49
7.3/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 8
Bottle from Craft Brewed. Pours a clear gold with a full finger of creamy white head. Coconut water nose, honeydew melon, tea and light dill. More dill and creamy coconut on the palate. Light and very drinkable. Summer worthy for sure.
Tried
from Bottle
on 07 Aug 2017
at 22:59
7.1/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 6.5
Sampled on draft at Hugo’s this beer poured a dark golden color with a large fluffy orange-white head that lingered and left good lacing. The aroma was sweet and tangy coconut and pineapple. The flavor was sweetish and tangy with coconut, pineapple and cream. Medium length finish. Moderately full bodied and smooth. Pleasant.
Tried
from Draft
on 30 Jul 2017
at 22:16
6/10
Tried
from Bottle
on 28 Jul 2017
at 16:25
6.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Pours hazy gold into a shaker. Bright white head with medium retention recedes to hug rim. Candied mango and mild coconut aromas. Soft with lemon joy and coconut front to back. Mild bitter earth finish.
Tried
from Can
on 27 Jul 2017
at 18:45
7.4/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 9
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
Soil, moss, lemongrass nose. Clear golden, medium head. Pervasive earhy note, tubers, not distinctly coconut. Orange overtones. Medium body, easy carbonation. Unique. Great if you like your IPAs "dirty". I kind of do.
Tried
on 26 Jul 2017
at 16:50
6/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 5
Draft taproom. Slightly hazy gold. Nice white lacing head. Aroma is juicy citrus including lemon, almost a fruity tums flavor. Flavor is slightly fruity, a little tums like but a bit more bitter. Not overly impressed. Weird fruity aftertaste.
Tried
from Draft
on 26 Jul 2017
at 15:01
7.6/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 8.5
Bottle. Aroma of coconut, citrus and fruity hop. Taste has heavy sweet coconut, vanilla citrus, some malt, tropical fruit and a long coconut finish. Creative and delicious bounty ipa.
Tried
from Bottle
on 26 Jul 2017
at 00:03
6/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
Draft at the Fairfax DFH Alehouse. Poured a hazy amber color with a medium sized white head. Aroma is light coconut, kind of like coconut water. Floral hoppy notes. Caramel malt notes, coconut water notes. Very light, mild tropical fruit notes are hidden behind coconut water. Better than most of their other recent wide releases. Probably highly drinkable when it’s 90+ degrees out.
Tried
from Draft
on 25 Jul 2017
at 12:33