BluCreek Zen IPA

BluCreek Brewing Company
Brewed at Sand Creek Brewing Co. (Pioneer/Wisconsin Brewing Co.)
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Madison, Wisconsin USA

Bottle from Friar Tuck in Savoy, IL. Pours a murky orange with a white head, and soda like carbonation that clings to the glass. This looks like a dark mimosa. Aroma of fruit flavored iced tea. Medium bodied, but with a watery texture. Flavor is dominated by tea (like drinking right from the teabag), with some pale malts hiding in the back. IPA? Where are the hops? Probably the most astringent finish I have experienced in a beer, as it tasted just like grape skins. Finish is also slightly dry. Interesting concept, but if I want lots of green tea flavor, I will drink green tea. I don’t need it overpower my beer.

I am completely fooled and intrigued by this beer. I bought it thinking "Oh, BluCreek, they’re really Sand Creek, and I like their stuff," and was feeling like an IPA. I didn’t even notice the green tea stuff until right before I opened the first bottle. Well, it pours thick in appearance, with a fair amount of particulate remaining in the bottom of the bottle. I think BeerBelcher put it best: "it looks like this nasty apricot-orange stuff my wife drinks, with not much head." There’s no lace either. The aroma is weak, and smelled of green beans or maybe grass, with just a hint of hop flowers. Mouthfeel is thin, and the consistency is watery too. Flavor is dominated by the green tea, and this is only a bad thing if you bought this beer thinking it was a standard IPA. There is some hop bitterness and citrus flavor in there, but it’s mostly herbal green tea flavor. I drank 3 to make sure I didn’t have a bad bottle, and then couldn’t sleep -- I think the green tea gave me a caffeine kick that led to insomnia! Interesting, and not entirely unpleasant -- although this was a surprise. 6/3/6/3/16=3.4. RE-RATED 3/19/08: Had a leftover bottle in the fridge, and thought I’d try it to see if it stored well. It didn’t. There was a strong odor, and a LOT of sediment. 3/1/3/2/7=1.6 Lesson: Don’t wait.

Thanks to JK for sharing. Grainy nose with faint hops. Strong tea flavor with grainy character.

Faint sweetly floral, earthy, musty and citric aroma, some flat, dusty grains amidst the lightly fruity hops. Opaque dirty medium orange color with a subsiding, off-white head. Lots of particulates which I chose to leave in the bottle. Flavor is rather oddly constructed, with a grainy, lifeless sweetness throughout, blended with a slight amount of bitterness and a vague dried, leafy, herbal hop character, leading to a dry, watery finish and leaving a somewhat chalky feel behind. Body is thin and dull as is the palate. I wonder if this isn’t a bit overaged, but the bottle shows no indication one way or the other. The drain got the remainder of this sample.

An overall light pale ale, but the tea is there in the flavor so that makes this an interesting changeup from the usual ipas. Gold color, and sadly the hops are too light in the aroma and the flavor. Mild malt base. The green tea is an interesting idea but they need to put in a decent quality beer.

Picked up a single 12-oz bottle from The Coffee Grounds in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Pours a cloudy golden amber brew with a thick and slightly lumpy off-white head that has good retention and lacing. Aroma of apricot/orange zest, light caramel malt and some herbal/flowery hops. Taste is medium bodied, lightly carbonated with a soapy dishwasher citrus flavor. Finish is slightly tart, fizzy with a light citrus aftertaste. The finish has a lingering mild bitterness in the end. Could use some more citrus character.

Poured a hazy yellow-brown. Very bitter tea taste... not balanced by any kinda body. Not the hoppy bitter piney taste that hallmarks some of the great IPAs. Rather the taste of a green tea that has been steeped too long. I initially thought the beer might be too old... but after reading some other descriptions... it looks like everyone’s experience was as bad as mine. I would not buy this beer again!

Pours a murky orange bronze with a small, thin-lacing white head. Aroma of earthy piny hops and some pale grainy malt. Body starts slightly sweet with a lot of drier earthy bitterness and a touch of soapy lemon citrus. Needs more crisp, refreshing flavor and balance. Seems too muddled and bitter. This might’ve been an old bottle, but I can’t find a date on it anywhere.