Bison IPA Single Hop Series - Simcoe

Brewed by Bison Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Berkeley, California USA

Cloudy color. Round full aroma, but not overtly hoppy. The flavor fills out to a sour/bitter finish.

Very citrusy flavor and aroma. Dark orange and cloudy. Starts off with citrus and then ends in the bite of the bitterness.

Nice looking bright orange beer , small off white bubblybhead. Quite an unusual aroma, like raisin bread,doughy, small pine note, smells like oatmeal and raisin cookies! This one is more malt accented than the others of this series, its mostly semi-bitter malts until the end when the hops showcase..more on the piney side. Nice enough mouth feel to this one. Overall not bad and quite drinkable,.

Very very sweet tangerine smell; beautiful golden color; whoa, the pine flavor comes on really stong, they ain’t joking by it being "a bit rough"! This is the first "single hop" I’ve had and I’m a fan of the entire idea. Especially for someone like me who’s relatively new--loves IPAs--and has no idea which hop tastes like what. Reminds of those "doctored beers" I’ve read about. As for this one, sure you have to be wanting this pretty distinct taste but I could definitely see bringing this one camping. I’ll be buying many more of these "single hop"s. Cheers Bison!

I pretty much agree with FlacoAlto here. I have certainly had richer and fresher expressions of simcoe. This exhibited the poor qualities of the hop in the green, herbal sense. The beer was beautiful. Nice amber orange color, a little haze that seemed to be healthy, and a nice frothy head that needed a little cajoling to stand stand. The nose had a spruce-like twinge that leaned into chives and ramps . This beer reminds me of why I like simcoe to be part of the blend and not the balance. All in all a pretty drinkable IPA and very interesting. Worth drinking and worth the price.

A vigorous pour produces a fat finger-thick, light tan colored head that sits atop a brilliantly clear, cranberry tinged, copper colored beer. The aroma is sharply aromatic with hop notes even at a distance of a couple feet. As I go in for a closer smell sharply herbal notes, pungent pine and dank hemp-like notes greet my nose. It almost starts to pick up a garlic / green onion like note as well. There are some typical hop fruit notes here, but not nearly what one would expect from Simcoe hops; muted candied orange peel, faint lychee and touches of tangelo are found if you really dig for it.

The beer is fairly light on the tongue; it is quaffable like a good IPA should be. The hop character is predominantly sharp & herbal, but there is some soft fruitiness that helps to provide a hint of balance. The malt here plays a completely supporting role with just a touch of toasty grain, and perhaps a hint of caramelized malt sugars. The finish is dominated by the hop character which is bitingly bitter, green, astringent and with a menthol-like like note that is almost minty. The expected, and more typically Simcoe associated flavors of fruit are more noticeable in the flavor than they were in the aroma, but still they are awfully muted from what one would expect from an all Simcoe hopped beer. Notes of lychee, ruby-red-grapefruit and tangelo are at a level above a hint, but not nearly as in your face and expressive as I was expecting.

I really am starting to be confused by Bison’s hop series of IPAs. Both the Amarillo and the Simcoe have been completely counter to all other encounters / brewing experience with either of these hops. I wonder if there is something in there brewing technique that is creating / accentuating the harsher components of these hops (my guess, it is their water chemistry). This is a decent IPA, and in fact I would be enjoying it a lot more if I did not know that hop variety used in it.

Purchased: Bevmo, Pasadena CA

Very sweet aroma, the hops do not make their presence known like in past editions, perhaps I’m just stuffed up. Very thin head on mundane gold. The hops crescendo through the finish, yet always take a backseat to the malt profile. I don’t find the hop rough at all, rather it could be very complimentary on its own in a pale ale or even an amber where you want the hops to remain in the background.