1000ml bottle [5.8% abv as per label]. Slightly cloudy, orangey golden colour with huge, frothy, fairly lasting, moderately lacing, off-white head. Fruity, hoppy aroma with an explicit bramble note, hints of other red berries, more IPA-typical fruit notes in second row, maybe some pineapple and tangerine, prognosticating a sweet-ish and tart taste. Not misguided by the berry flavours, notes of bramble and other berries reappear in taste as well as background-ish hints of peach, mirabelle and mango, moderate caramel malty sweetness and a slightly tart touch as forecasted, additionally a cautiously herbal, bitter hop note; yoghurt resemblances; a spicy touch of hay in the finish. Relatively light body, quite sessionable, slightly earthy character overall. Delightful berry notes, unusual for an IPA, but well matching with the caramel malty basis - maybe a touch too much sweetness. It seems the brewer has developed a way to worm the terminal possibilities out of local ingredients (hop pellets(!), not cones) to deliver a genuine interpretation of the IPA style. Well done!

Deutlich hopfiger dunkler Antrunk, frisch, etwas hefig. Die Hopfigkeit breitet sich dann etwas aus und bleibt das Hauptaroma, wenig bitter zum Ende. Gelungen. 12/11/12/11//11

Poured up on draft (5.4%) at the brewpub into a big goblet like glass that has a narrow sort of Kolsch glass looking shape for the lower half and then a big globe at the top. It has a clear copper body with gold edges that supports a clean smooth 2 inch tall head that leaves behind some sheet lacing. The aroma offers up earthy almost basement like citrus hop notes with smooth sweet malts in the background before a moderate level of mango and pineapple surface toward the end of the draw with a smooth almost cotton candy like smell. Additional whiffs bring up a nice load of mango. The taste rolls into a smooth malt sweetened mix of lime, grapefruit, mango and pineapple. I am getting largely flavor hops and only a modest degree of bitter hops from this hop profile. As a consequence this must be a mighty approachable IPA for those who are new to this style. That said I’ve had Kolsch with a bigger hop bitterness but with a much lesser extent of hop flavor. Toward the finish I get a re-assuring yet modest hop bitterness that helps take this into the after taste where a bit of roasted malts and mango tend to linger for a while.