Angel City IPA

Brewed by Angel City Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Torrance, California USA

Note Possible bad bottle. This IPA pours a deep amber color from a 22oz bottle. Small to medium sized white foamy head. Aroma is caramel, tart fruits and very herbal. A medium bodied IPA. Malts are caramel and sweet with lots of tart/sour fruit flavors. Hops are herbal and earthy. Nice carbonation. It just that this beer has a weird taste that makes me think it gone off or is a little infected or something. It seems to be a lots more in the English Style IPA, with all that herbal and earthy hops flavor, but it has a sort of lactic aftertaste that does not seem right somehow. I am going to go ahead and rate this with the proviso to get another bottle and re-rate it sometime in the future. I mean I have had worse tasting IPAs than this one. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is crisp. Aftertaste is slightly bitter and a touch sour.

Bomber pours out hazy copper – orange with off white head. The aroma seems somewhat Belgian like with yeasty spice mixed with lime, sour green grapes and a hint of malt sweetness. The taste starts tart with lemon, lime and under ripe grapes followed by tart grapefruit rind. A faint malt sweetness wells up at one point but doesn’t do anything to stave off the citrusy bitterness. Maybe this bottle has just started to sour. If it is meant to taste like this then I really didn’t care for it too much.

Obviously made in the English style. Aroma is some earth, grass, and some lemon. Beer pours a opaqe amberish color. Flavor is more of the grass and lemon. Not overly bitter at all. Relatively drinkable, but really average. I will not drink this again.

(22 oz bottle: $3.49 at BevMo in La Jolla, CA) Okay, so when you’re drinking a west coast IPA, but the hops is completely overpowered by off-flavors, you know you really have a problem on your hands. Unlike the infection in their Dunkel which contributed a significant sourness, this is just massive diacetyl. But just like with the Dunkel, this beer smells and tastes like rancid fruit, though here, it’s extremely unpleasant. Really not much point in writing much more, but a beer this brutally awful, so obscenely polluted by off-flavors has to be put on the record. And I’m gonna talk to my manager at BevMo and get this crap pulled off the shelf. It should also be noted that this beer was kept cold the entire time because I stuck my bottles in the cooler as soon as the driver delivered them (and he came straight from the brewery, early in the morning). A definite rerate is in order, but not until the bottling line is cleaned up.

A true IPA, a true beer lovers beer. Big hop floral nose, but malts still come through. If you like them hoppy, better try this one. It will make you pucker BABY!

Bottle: Courtesy of Styles. aroma is not IPA-like at all. Peach, grain, hint of pineapple, and some stale smelling hops. Pours a transparent amber with a small white head. Flavors of sour orange, rotten fruit, and a somewhat flowery hop finish. Everything just seems off. One of the worst IPA’s I’ve ever had.

Bottle: Reddish amber, hazy, moderate to large light beige head, frothy, fairly nice lacing.   Immature fruit on the nose.   Slight rubarb in fact.   Where the hell is the hop bitterness?   Odd bitter fruit flavor... no pine, citrus, or floral notes thats usually associated with an IPA.   This isn’t even a Pale Ale.   Ale maybe...   Biting finish, sour fruit in fact.   Not sure if this is spoiled, but based on the other rates I think this is normal for them.   Thats too bad...   Thanks for the new label Jordan!

Appearance: Lightly hazy, orangey body with a small, white head. Smell: Sweet and sour aroma of ashamed malts and stale, soapy citrus hops. Here we go again! Taste: Unhappy malts comingling with sad, sad citrus fruits. And it’s all pretty tart! If there’s any hop bitterness present, it’s fully obscured by this tartness. Ugh. Mouthfeel: Medium-thin body. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: Heavens, no!