Results from IPA and Double IPA tasting night.

Commercial Beer Reviews
1

So some friends and I decided to do a IPA and double IPA taste testing night. Here are my personal notes.

I rated each beer on a point scale from 1-5 and wrote down initial aroma and tasting notes.

REGULAR IPA

  1. Angle city brewing IPA - Had a dusty copper aroma, Taste was light in flavor not much hop flavor, only a copper like bitterness. Score -1

  2. Goose Island IPA- Aroma was also coppery with a touch of fruit ester. Taste was slightly fruity with a caramel back ground. bitter finish. Score - 2

  3. Drakes Aroma Coma - Aroma good mango and papaya. Taste was light caramel and bitterness with a smooth fading bitterness. Score - 3.5

  4. Bootleggers Ruthless Rye - Aroma of malty copper and slight fruit. Flavor was caramel with a round body sweetness. Score - 3

DOUBLE IPAS (all double IPAs immediately seemed brighter and had more flavor)

  1. Golden Road Wolf Among Weeds - Simcoe hops, oily pine aroma, taste of similar with a bitter start and flavor in the middle. Score - 3

  2. Ninkasi Tricerahops - Aroma of pears and pineapples and hit a of chili. taste of slight caramel with muddle fruit flavors. Score - 3.5

  3. Avery Maharja - Aroma is super malty reminds me of malt extract, Flavor is overwhelmingly malty but has a nice hoppy skittle like flavor hiding underneath. Score - 2.5

  4. Firestone Walker Double Jack - Aroma of Starburst fruit punch candy, flavor is light toasty biscuit, with fruity flavors of hint of dank from simcoe but a nice crisp finish. Score 3.5

  5. Racer 5 X double IPA - Smell of simcoe hops and malt, Taste was overwhelmingly danky with a diesel fuel taste. Malt was present medium body. Score 2.5

  6. Heady Topper - Aroma was of apricots and candy, Starts with a crisp fruity bitterness. Malt is present but clean and stays outta the way. After the swallow the bitterness stays on the palate and fades away. Score - 3.5

Overall my favorite beers of the night were (in order) Double Jack, Aroma Coma, and Heady Topper.

In the end I mixed together all the leftover ipas from the bottles to a mug. Was actually quite tasty and seemed to round out some of the flaws of the others. Only down fall was flavors will also not as bright.

A few things I learned about my preference of flavors. I do not like my ipas overly malty. i like them dry with a grainy background but not too much malt. As for hops I really enjoy the fruity citrus flavors and a SMOOTH bitterness. Simcoe dankyness can be welcome but has to be done correctly. I had Pliney The Elder on tap a few weeks ago and I think has the right combo of all these. To bad I couldnt get Pliney in the mix here, but Pliney and Double jack would be my favs.

Cheers!

2

Aroma Coma is really tasty, but I like Aroma Prieta better. It is the same beer, but all Aussie/NZ hops.

3

Ya I would really like to try the Prieta, but I’ve never seen it here in Socal. I recently had a fresh bottle Sierra Nevada’s Southern Hemisphere and it was awesome (which is also NZ hops). I think the next IPA I brew im going to play with NZ hops. I heard Mitch Steele talk about using some Motueka mixed with Centennial to get a Fruit Loops Flavor!