Alpine Beer Company Nelson IPA

Brewed by Alpine Beer Company (CA)
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Alpine, California USA

Bottle courtesy of bret27. Pours a light gold color with a frothy off-white head. The lightness is actually enticing considering the darker hues of so many awful, oversweet crystal malt bomb IPAs. Aroma is just ridiculous. A huge wave of tropical fruits explodes from the glass. Peach syrup, tangerines, passionfruit, grapefruit, pineapple; I really can’t stop smelling this. The taste is, thankfully, pretty much identical to the aroma, so much so that it was hard to tell when I had stopped inhaling and started imbibing. Fruit salad with a great resinous medium bitterness. Oh and I was so fixated on the fruitiness that I almost didn’t notice the rye, which works to spice up (pun intended) the malt base, which would otherwise be imperceivable. Insanely smooth and drinkable. Just a fantastic IPA.

Growler from the brewery on release day. Gold with a lasting white head. Super green, dank, spicy, grape, and mango hop aroma. Awesome. Smells like no other IPA that I’ve had, yet is unquestionably one of the best hop aromas that I’ve ever come across. The flavor has a similar light toasty malt to their other IPAs, but with just a touch of rye spice. The hop flavor is all there, but is not too bitter at all, just very dank, fruity, and juicy. The body is on the light some with smooth carbonation. I know that this is at the peak of freshness, but damn this is amazing. Unique and just awesome all around.

Rerate: I am beginning to see this less as an IPA, and more as a god-like nectar. And out of the bottle! The world is going mad. I can’t even quantify how intensely fruity and juicy the aroma is. There is really nothing like it as far as I know, which is not much, but hey. It was almost equal with sculpin when they were both out of the tap, but this blows sculpin away in their bottled forms.

Growler shared with Naven and Bartzilla. This is my new favorite IPA, Barzilla describes it as Donald Duck Orange Juice. It pours brght light amberish yellow, with a nice head. The nose is citrusy and bright. The taste is damn good orange grapefruit and just damn goodness all rolled into one. This is a stellar IPA. I would drink this every day if I could.

On cask at O’Briens. I went specifically for this brew, waited 10 minutes for the busy bar keeps to put it on. That’s ok, worth the wait. Very hazy yellowish amber with lots of floaties. I wasn’t sure if this is typical of a cask pour, or was it because it was the first pour. Didnt matter as it didnt affect the taste. Wow, grapefruit, citrus, pine, a little grass, but nothing overpowering. Very drinkable. Deffinetly surprising, considering some other brews like Exponential, and Pure Hoppiness are put out by this brewery. I really think Alpine is on to something with these Nelson Sauvin Hops. Keep it up guys, and get this in to a bottle. A great IPA.

Poured into a flute Golden body with brown haze. thick foam cap. retained and laced like mad. Smelled very strong of pine and floral hops. Body is almost silky, nice rye body up front, washes with a large amount of bittering hops. As balanced as you can get for something so hop forward. Still crisp and light enough to be drank in a session. Guaranteed to hop bomb the toilet the next day if you do though.

Simply the best Rye-P.A. I’ve ever had. Body is a nice dry rye body, hop aroma is the dankiest, stickiest pot you’ve ever smoked and the finish is clean. Despite this being rye, its incredibly balanced, and doesn’t have too much bitterness to get in the way of the hop aromatics. Pours a copper hazy with thin white head. Despite the thinness of head, it leaves a very nice lacing design on the glass.

On tap @ blind lady. Orange yellow pour, hazy. Aroma of pungent citrus and pine, fresh as hell. Flavors of pine and citrus, ample bitterness followed with dry malt. Excellent hop bomb.