northwestern ipa lineup - 6 month retrospective

this past summer i had a chance to round up a bunch of ipa's of the northwest and drink them in sequence. finally, half a year later, it's time to blog my notes...



The pike IPA is out of seattle. It was good warm with sweet malt in the nose, a crescendo of hop bitterness and a dry finish.
kim sez: "not floral enough!"

the sweetgrass ipa comes to us bottle conditioned from the tetons. i found sweet flowers in the nose and an herbal attack finished with a clean note of copper.
kim sez: "mild, high drinkability, with little aftertaste"



i included the st. rogue red even though it was not an ipa because it was dry hopped, and i expected it to fit right in. in fact it was my favorite beer of the summer, being full bodied with malt on the heavy side. the hop bitterness was gentle yet firm, with lovely floral essence in both the nose and finish. i found it quite drinkable.



the inversion ipa is from deschutes oregon. the brewery is quite good though their flagship products would have to be the mirror pond pale and the black butte porter. the inversion was decent, though i noticed some metal in the nose. the rest of the beer was characterized by aggressive and persistent hop bitterness, but if you watch carefully you may catch a surprise hint of banana in the middle.



a little sumpin' extra from lagunitas didn't self-describe itself as any style, forcing me to get it out of curiosity. it turned out to be...unique, maybe you would say a tripel plus hops. it was pale golden with a brilliant floral nose. the heart of it was filled with assertive dried fruit flavors, followed by some astrigency and lingering alcohol vapors. drinkability was very low, indeed.
kim sez: "uhhhhg...that's a little sumpin' extra..."



finally, a second beer from grand teton brewing co., the lost continent double ipa. with a nose of alcohol and syrup, and large chunks of lazy sediment, you know you're in for an experience. If you don't mind the extreme hop bitterness, you might enjoy substantial grapefruit tones, mopped up with a whiff of floral and alcoholic vapors.
Dad sez: "oh god! it's horrible!"