Acme California IPA

Brewed by North Coast Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Fort Bragg, California USA

Pours bright golden with a mostly receding off-white head. Tastes of mild citrus, caramel, cookie, and biscuit malt. Medium to full bodied, resinous with lively carbonation.

12oz bottle. Pours deep gold and very cloudy. The head pours thick and light tan. It holds its shape like beaten egg whites and laces the glass. The aroma is all kinds of hoppy: grassy, lemony, perfumy, and piney. There are also touches of crystal malt in the aroma giving an impression of honey. The flavor starts very malty with big floral hop flavor. The malt profile is bready and soft with a dollop of residual sweetness. The hops are piney and floral. By mid-palate, the beer is very bitter from the hops. The finish is very dry and very hoppy with some notes of bready sweetness and fruity esters. The mouthfeel is crisply carbonated - almost spritzy. The carbonic acid bite combines the with bitterness to create a texture that is very dry - almost astringent - in the back of the palate. The body is medium-full. Overall, a bitter IPA with a lot of interesting hop character (flavors of European noble hops, English hops, and American hops all stew about in there).

Pours a hazy orange color and topped with a thick off-white head that produced tons of lacing on the glass. Mild fruity hop aroma with malt sneaking through as it warms. While this might not blow the average hophead away with flavor it is very smooth with malt and then a gradual grapefruit hop bite. It doesn’t bite right away with hops, more of a long-lasting smooth hoppy flavor. This is solid.

Poured to a hazy orange-yellow, with a medium off-white head that lingered throughout the glass and left very good lacing on the sides. Immdeiately struck by the citrusy grapefruit upon opening, and this was reflected in the biting tanginess of the mouthfeel. Taste was mostly hoppy grapefruit as well, but there was a hint of both a malty sweetness and the 6.5% alcohol as the beer warmed slightly. A very pleasant beer that I could definitely enjoy again.

Pretty average IPA. Nothing much to say, everything is right down the middle.

2008 Bottle - A totally forgettable IPA, mild citrus aroma, bitter for bitters sake and nothing else, I don’t remember anything besides that...

Pours a clear gold with a healthy white head. Has a weak hop aroma, and taste is bitter but lacking. Not that great.

12 oz bottle. Pale amber color, minimal head. Malt is there initially, somewhat sweet, but plays a small role. Flavor is big grassy citrus fresh hops. Medium bodied. Somewhat syrupy. Dry on the palate. One extra point for the cool looking bottle.