I’ll be honest. Full Sail IPA is most likely suffering from the Sierra Nevada Torpedo I’ve been drinking all week. It’s not that this beer is a bad IPA, but it never builds upon the initial notes of citrus and herbal hops, growing bitter and dull as you work through the pint. Still, the first few sips go down easy enough, just not enough to endear this brew to my jaded taste buds. Like I said, this beer loses points for being slightly above average in a market flooded with great IPAs.

Whole Foods, DC six-pack ($9): Pours a light copper color with a quickly dissipating white head that leaves the tiniest bit of lacing. Bready malts and fruity hops are present in the aroma. The taste of the beer is hinted by the aroma and is a pretty run of the mill IPA. It does claim to be more British and this is evident in the lack of extreme bitterness or very intense hops. Instead, it is a fairly well-balanced beer that would be very easy to drink 10 of.

we americans do not enjoy the english ipas quite as much as the american ones, but this is fine, not going to knock your socks off by any means, but its very easy to drink, hoppier than i thought it was going to be, but the malts are still very much present. a nice one.

Location: 12 oz bottle from Buy Rite - Jersey City, 1/9/11

Aroma: The nose is crisp and fairly light, hoppy, fruity and grassy notes, some crystal malts
Appearance: It pours a clear golden-copper color with a small quickly dissipating white head
Flavor: Flavor-wise, this one is fairly light as well, grass hops, pine, fruit, and light maltiness
Palate: The body is fairly light on this one, the carbonation is fairly lively, and the finish is crisp and clean
Overall Impression: Overall, this is a basically just a drinkable IPA, but nothing more then that. Easy drinking, clean, and well-made enough, but just a little too simple and lacking. After enjoying some of their other beers (particularly hop forward beers - Pale Ale, Wreck the Halls), I was expecting a little more from this one. I really just think my opinion of this one boils down to this: it is fine quality-wise, but just lacking in excitement.

Pours gold into a Sam glass. Bright white head recedes leaving spider lacing. Mild resin aromas. Crisp with mild grapefruit upfront turning sour in the medium length finish.

Bottle thanks to Tim. Pours clear amber. Nose and taste of caramel malts, citrus, apricot and hops with dry pine finish.

Shipped to me by my wife on a trip to Portland. Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured a hazy orange color with a large creamy yellow-white head that produced good lacing. The aroma was sweetish with moderate pineapple and pine and notes of bread and nut. The flavor was bitter and dryish with moderate lemon and grapefruit and faint pine. Not much malt to back this one up. The finish was dry, bitter and lemony. Medium body. Ok.

33 cl bottle. Dark golden color, small white head, solid lacing. Aroma of bread, grass, caramel, pepper. Taste is very bitter from start to finish, peppery and fresh. Not bad.

Orange flesh and lemon zest aroma. Clear amber, thin head, good lacing. Delightful citrus flavor, tastes as it smells, with a bit of orange peel, generic bitter finish. Not real imaginative, but enjoyable. Actually more citrusy than billed.

There ain’t no love for British-style IPAs - this one may not be the hop smack to the palate that a lot of American IPAs are, but it is a nice, dry, biscuity ipa none-the-less - the hops add more of a toasty, earthy flavor to the beer rather than an intense bitterness, but the bitterness is strong enough to satisfy the hop craving, without overwhelming the malt base - if you don’t like your ipas on the dry side, this may not be for you, but I quite like it.