Rock Out With Your Hops Out
Kettlehead Brewing Company in Tilton, New Hampshire, United States 🇺🇸
IPA - New England / Hazy Special|
Score
7.28
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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Illegibly-dated can drunk 8/24/23. Moderately hazy, bright golden-brass-orange. Medium-sized, white head, showing moderate retention. Spicy, juicy, very citrusy with lots of pineapple accent. Hint of pine and quite a bit of acidity with white bread and cracker-like malt and clean yeast. Much, much more assertively bittering hopped than most of their beers. Great maltiness and good attenuation with lots of C-hop-like character including grapefruit, mosaic fruity-spice and lots of orange juice and light pine. Lingering bitterness.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 8
Can pour from The Beer Store, Nashua. Appearance is opaque milky orange-light brown with tons of sparkle at the edges of the glass, 2-finger width white foamy head with good retention and light leggy lacing. Aroma is strong stone fruit, citrus, vegetation and herb. Taste is strong sharp, acidic stone fruit (almost tart) with secondary herb. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with thick, chewy texture, average carbonation, nice alcohol warmth and finish as taste with only the slightest lingering bitterness. Overall, all the elements are here and this is Kettlehead towards its best. Not super complex but has some unique qualities.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Fresh 16 oz. can thanks going to tfontana on this. Aroma shows me mild pine with weak citrus, soft yeast. Flavor has generic fruit. (No Particular fruit stands out). Ordinary generic apricot. Flavors shows some juicy character but again nothing that stands out. If I brewed this at home I would be super stoked. But as a commercially sold beer? Still not convinced.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Got in a trade with SawDog505. 16 ounce can into tulip glass, canned in 6/2019. Pours very hazy deep golden amber/light orange color with a 2 finger fairly dense and rocky off white head with great retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Nice dense foamy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of big mandarin orange juice, red grapefruit, lemon, lime, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, honeydew melon, guava, coconut, blueberry, gooseberry, citrus peel/rind, wood, mint, peppercorn, pine, wheat, cracker, white bread dough, biscuit, light honey/toast, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of citrus/fruity/tropical/earthy hops and bready malt notes; with big strength. Taste of big mandarin orange juice, red grapefruit, lemon, lime, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, honeydew melon, guava, coconut, blueberry, gooseberry, citrus peel/rind, wood, mint, peppercorn, pine, wheat, cracker, white bread dough, biscuit, light honey/toast, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, floral, woody, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of mandarin orange juice, red grapefruit, lemon, lime, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, honeydew melon, guava, coconut, blueberry, gooseberry, citrus peel/rind, wood, mint, peppercorn, pine, wheat, cracker, white bread dough, biscuit, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness on the finish for a while. Awesome complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/fruity/tropical/earthy hops and bready malt flavors; with a great malt/bitterness balance, and no lingering hop astringency after the finish. Lightly increasing dryness from lingering bitterness. Medium carbonation and medium-plus body; with a very smooth, creamy/bready/grainy, and fairly sticky/resinous/rindy mouthfeel that is great. Minimal warming alcohol for 8%. Overall this is an awesome NEDIPA. All around awesome complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/fruity/tropical/earthy hops and bready malt flavors; very smooth and easy to drink for the ABV, with the modestly bitter/resinous/drying finish. Nicely soft, and not overly aggressive. Awesome CTZ, Apollo, Southern Passion and Mosaic profile. Extremely juicy, vibrant, dank, and earthy hop balanced complexity; with a great wheat/oat/malt backbone. Light residual sweetness with lingering resin dryness. A really enjoyable offering, and impressively well made style example.