Carlyle India Pale Ale

Brewed by Carlyle Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Rockford, Illinois USA

Sampler. After sliding through the "regular" beer samples, we come to the start of the "extreme" beers that couldn’t fit on the sampler paddle! Just a little too light to be taking on the Dreadnaught, but it’s surely sniffing its butt behind. Heavy fresh hop layer from dry hopping. Brutally bitter to keep those aroma hops out of the way.

My favorite of Carlyle’s beers. I love hops. Nice citrus flavor. Outstanding super hoppy aroma. Good clove flavor as well. Great for fans of bitterness, in a pint glass.

Pint glass from a growler. Heavy hops on nose and palatte, complex nose with clove and citrus, cloudy pour, somewhat overpowering.

On tap at brewery. All hops yes, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Hazy orange. The aroma was a little reserved, but it came through on the taste. Better than I expected actually. I would have liked to try more from what they had to offer...Hopefully being close by I’ll be able to visit them again.

Personal Milestone: Illinois rating #500 (out of 2910)!!!!!
And what a nice way for this avowed hophead to celebrate that milestone, with a dandy of an IPA. They call it Humulus Lupulus now. It’s a hazy amber, frothy headed hop bomb. Nice. The aroma is bereft of malt, filled with grapefruit, pine, flowers, lemon zest, and a slight earthiness. There is a sweet caramel backbone in the flavor, but once more the hops dominate, curling the tongue with a serious bitterness that lasts long, long into the dry finish. Very nice.

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? Brewing Company, Rockford, IL<font size=-1>

Had this one on draught at the brewpub. Knock you on your ass hoppiness on this one, I loved it.

At the prew pub in a pint glass. If you like the smell of a bag of hops, this is for you. Nice fresh, fruity, flowery hop aroma, a bit piney. Nice slightly dark amber copper color. Mine had an appropriate amount of carbonation and the head retention was fine. A mouth full of hops that clung to the back of my tongue. Needed a bit more malt to help with some balance and mouth feel. Like many brew pub/micro IPA’s they error on the side of hops. Would have had another, but had to be somewhere else within 15 minutes.

Murky brown in color with a quickly-dissipationg head. Citrus nose with caramel nose. Grapefruit come through strongly. Nice backbone malt flavor to solidify the brew. Very nice dry hopping to provide a pine floral presence. Bitter finish is nice. Good effort!