Indian Tribute (2008-)

Can from some Systembolaget in Stockholm, huge thanks Sara for bringing it to Croatia! Lightly hazy dark amber body, lasting off-white head. Spicy orange jelly aroma, sweetish. Leanish body, sweetish taste, orange jelly, spicy touches, herbal notes, low bitterness. Very old school and classic, kinda dig it - but also see why the world of craft beer moved away from beers like this. It's a classic, a time capsule of sorts, and I love that it exists.

Award-winning Swedish IPA apparently intended as a nod to the original West Coast IPA style, but also to the - rather mythical - origins of India pale ale, depicting an Asian elephant on its label, like some other (very) old school IPAs have done in the past. Cream white, thick and very frothy, busily cobweb-lacing, pillowy, stable, hops-enhanced head on an initially clear, warm orange-glowing peach-golden beer, only slightly hazed (but deeper orange) with sediment. The nose immediately takes me back ten to fifteen years in the past: yellow grapefruit peel, toasted onion, pine resin, tonic water, dry biscuit, spruce tips, pink peppercorns, cucumber peel, dark green beech leaves, wormwood, Graham crackers. Clean, sleek onset, some vague dried apricot but low in both esters and sweetness, with medium carbonation adding some minerally side effects; early signs of uncompromizing hop bitterness to come accompany a smooth, oily, slick body over a dry cracker- and bread crust-like middle to a full-fledged old school bitterness, with long-lasting grapefruity, wormwoody, piney and oniony flavours. The peppery and bit herbal bitterness goes on and on, while maintaining contact with that dry cracker-like malt backbone; minerally effects accentuate the bitterness in this case. It has been quite a while again since I had this kind of mouth-filling, tongue-scraping, resinous and oily bitterness in an IPA, but contrary to some young craft beer hipsters, I vividly remember a time when literally all IPAs coming from across the Atlantic had this same profile - there were no tropical, hazy, sweet 'IPAs' back then. Old-fashioned, unabated hop bitterness is key here, if I was told that this comes straight from California, I would have believed it - but then this beer has apparently been around from before the big 'haze craze' and actually dates back to a time when all IPAs tasted like this, so I guess it has simply stayed true to itself in all those years and, by ignoring more recent evolutions in the IPA world, has turned into some kind of living fossil. It takes experience with the original American IPA style and knowledge of modern beer history to appreciate this one, I reckon, but speaking only for myself, I regret that not more IPAs taste like this today. Thank you, Oppigårds, for taking me back into time, a time when craft beer was less broadly commercialized and in that sense more exciting than it is today - but that is just me getting old, I guess.

33cl bottle from hopt.it, France. Pours dark amber, fairly transparent, with with fine whitish foam. Aroma is malty and resinous. Body and carbonation are average. Taste is medium-high bitter, actually fairly long in the final.

High carbonation.bitter and dry.lasting bitterness.good.... Tap@LeskinenOulu,FI.

0,33 l bottle shared with Nino at the Royal Oak, Eskilstuna, Sweden. Clear golden, small off-white head. Lightly to moderately hoppy, spicy, earthy, fruity touch, biscuit underneath. Bitter. Fruity, malty, earthy flavour. Medium body, moderate carbonation, moderate finish. Average.