Northeast IPA

$3.99 pint can, Total Wine, Gainesville. Hazy gold pour, small yellowish head. Lemon zest, grapefruit, some orange in the nose. Flavor is funky grapefruit, pine, random citrus. Not a great effort.

Bottle sent by Schlafly for review. It is almost opaque and hazy. There are no "floaties" visible, just a kind of orange juice body. The smell is pretty fruity, but also carries some West Coast pine hop as well. The taste is citrusy, no doubt. It also still has a lot of bitterness for what looks like a medium-alpha beer. I could call it "juicy," I guess, but it's not quite as I've been led to believe. I guess the only thing for it is to drink more northeastern IPAs to get a handle on the style. Though with its 8% abv, it seems like a milder little brother to Dogfish Head's 90-Minute IPA. Something with this much strength and flavor I can't think of an adequate food pairing. My fallback recommendation would be to match with spicy foods, grilled meats, and creamy cheeses.

Hazy orange and peach coloured body with a thin, single to two centimetre tall off-white head. Aroma of grain, alcohol, full oranges, light spices, a touch of earthy malts and a good dose of herbs and grass near the end - no real hop bitterness noticeable here. Medium-bodied; Assertive grainy maltiness at first with a bigger dose of cereal, bread and orange flavours without much hoppiness at all - just some spicy and herbal hop notes that have absolutely no bitterness associated. Aftertaste shows the malt, cereal, grain and earthy side of things with a tiny bit of alcohol noticeable, but more of the full orange and light citrus flavours without any true hop elements detected. Overall, a decent beer that doesn't show more of an IPA, but instead that of a herb/spice/veg beer, but one without too much character throughout. Nice enough to try, but definitely not something to search out for and try, and it's definitely not one of the better examples of the 'style'. I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased from Liqour Outlet in Boonton, New Jersey two days ago on 09-March-2018 for US$2,19 sampled at home in Monroe, Connecticut on 10-March-2018 with my brother and sister-in-law.

Mild orange peel nose. Clear amber, medium cream colored head, good lace. Pithy overripe orange. Full body, soft carbonation. I was very excited to try this. Unfortunately, I've been spoiled by really good examples of the style and was a little disappointed with this one. Good IPA with a nice texture, for sure. Not juicy enough for the NE subset.

Pour is a hazy copper with a large white head. Aroma is a fruity and floral hop. Not a huge hop but just enough to let you know its an IPA. Flavor is some berry hop with a larger than usual malt sweetness. Finish has a little bitterness but not much. This was pretty far from a NE IPA, a little to sweet malt heavy and not nearly enough tropical fruit hops.