CJs Vat 33 IPA

Brewed by CJs Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Commerce Township, Michigan USA

Pours a light orange hazy color with a big white head. Nose is very floral, quite nice and interesting. Palate is water. Flavor is very lacking and is watery with no malt backbone at all.

12oz bottle from my GF who got it straight from the brewery. By the look of the other ratings I’m a little scared as to how old this bottle is. Very nice clear orange with beautiful, large creamy white head. Aroma is grassy and piney, it’s not fresh but I don’t think it’s as old as some of these other ratings, caramel malt, very hop forward. Flavor is citrus and medium bitterness, a little grassy, some graininess, caramel, dry. Medium to thin body with okay carbonation. Big upfront bit the followthrough isn’t as good. I’m not saying I’m not enjoying it, it just could be a little fresher and thicker bodied.

12 oz. bottle: Lightly hazy amber color, with a small retaining tan head. Aroma of dull cheap hops. Flavor is overly watery (I think this is the brewery’s theme) there are hops which seem to grow nastier as it finishes, there are some slight malts in the background.

12 oz bottle. More of the same. Im getting lemons without any real malty balance. It is hoppy but it freakin sucks. Im pissed at this brewery for draggin down my average. Damn them.

2004 draught at MBGSBF. Pours a light yellowish-copper with a small white head. This was the highest IBU offering they had (I think somewhere around 45) and I was in the mood for hops at this point, so I gave this a shot. Smells very papery/floral. Dry and perfumy on the nose, I wondered if it would be balanced. Flavor turned out to be a good, lightly juicy, but mostly dry bitter hops sensation. Not too much malt as these American I.P.A.s seem to lack, but the hops were fairly aggressive and if you were looking for tons of hops, this probably satisfied you. However, I was looking for tons of hops and tons of malt, which it didnt quite provide. Medium body, pretty decent fluffy palate, but no real malt backbone.

Hops, I like hops and at first thought this would be a good beer. The beer is very thin, really thin for an IPA. Has very little character and in fact is not very good.

Nope. It has hops, yes, but overwhelming cacadification does not a godd IPA make. Once an ahile a touch of sweet something surfaces, but mostly its a mild burn of rough edged hops.