Bottle at home in CT. Pours clear copper-gold with a big, frothy white head. The nose holds notes of melon, strawberry, mango, bubblegum and citrus. Medium sweet flavor with pale bread sugars, faint dough, gummy berries, tangerine, further melon. Medium bodied with average carbonation. Moderately sweet to finish with slight leafy bitterness, some minerals, more melon and berries, biscuity pale malts, tangerine. Not bad.

The Sampler, Brooklyn tap: Pours orange with white head. Aroma is earthy, herbal, and lightly fruity. Taste is more similar to a less malty ESB than it is to what we imagine an IPA to be in this day and age. I am not sure how it really works out at the end, but I feel that more creativity with English hops is in order.

Bottle. Light grass/hay and toffee malt aroma. Golden yellow with nice fluffy head. Sweet barley malt and moderately bitter earthy grass flavor. Well, I can see why most brewers don’t use this hop type for an IPA - this is more in line with a Bitter. Still I like it.

Bottle, from Deconstructed 12 pack. Pours a deep clear copper color with a thick off white head. Good retention and lacing. Aroma is malt forward; sweet & bready. Taste follows with a bit of an earthy hop presence. Finish is dry & sweet with minimal bitterness. Not bad, but.....

Provided from a friend, enjoyed on a gorgeous Wednesday mid summer afternoon during a cool stretch. Appearance is a moderately dark golden brown with a rich and frothy white head that nicely laces to the glass. Aroma is very dry, mostly bready, light bitterness. Taste finishes lightly bitter, definite bready notes, not very IPA like at all, more like an English bitter ale. Not bad though.

12oz bottle from Wegman’s, Buffalo, NY. - No 1 in the series. I have to agree with the previous rater, EKG isn’t an ideal hop for an American IPA - this attempt has to come under the heading of "interesting".
It’s an attractive golden amber pour with a billowing head; the aroma of the hops is somewhat swamped by the caramel malts, and what’s left isn’t particularly appealing; in the mouth there’s sweet carmael malt, and the spiciness I associate with EKG; and the finish is long, dry and pleasantly bitter.

15th June 2011
Clear amber beer, tidy white head. Light palate, crispy and fairly dry. Minerally and fresh. Well balanced. A little toffee in the malt. The hops, not surprisingly, are more bitter than fruity. Finishes crisp with a carbonated sting and a touch of bitter marmalade. All very English. An English bitter with the volume turned up!

I got the 12-pack last July and stashed it in the fridge with the idea of a video tasting comparing all six at once. Never got around to happening. Now it’s 10 months later, and I finally decide to just do two at a time. I’m comparing this to the Simcoe, both poured in Sam Adams glasses. Pour: I got the whole bottle into the glass, with the foam puffing up just to the rim. Look is filtered amber with bit of floating sediment. Foam stays at the one finger level for some time. Aroma: Less oxidized than the Simcoe. Hop aroma is greatly settled out. Taste: Malts to the front now. Hops are only slightly present, just enough to keep the beer honest. Bit of earthy English hop, but just barely there. Total package is a lighter mouthfeel, like an English bitter. A little too mild to stand as even an English IPA, but that’s my fault for not drinking it fresh.

Bottle sample at a Deconstructed tasting at Porter & Sons. Clear amber with a medium off-white head. Aroma of some earthy hops, caramel and malt. Flavor has some slightly grainy caramelly malt, a bit of biscuits and honey and earth and earthy and slightly citric hoppy bitterness. Medium-bodied.

Bottle. Amber body with orange highlights. Fizzy, off-white head. LIght aroma of stale bread, earthiness, caramel and flowers. The flavor is moderately sweet and light to moderately bitter. It finishes light o moderately sweet and light to moderately bitter. Medium body, watery texture and lively carbonation. The East Kent Goldings hops are not aggressive enough to tame the sweet malts. But certainly not cloying. Just a sweet IPA.