Eel River Certified Organic India Pale Ale

Brewed by Eel River Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Fortuna, California USA

On tap at The Red in Santa Cruz. Poured into a pint glass. Golden copper color with a frothy off-white head. Modest lacing. Aroma is fruity, but not in an IPA way. I get cranberry and raspberry instead of citrus and caramel. Weird. Flavor is malty caramel, with accents of the cran-raspberry and a very weak bitterness. As it warms, I get vanilla and playdoh notes. This is at best a mediocre pale/amber ale. It’s yeast- and malt-forward instead of hop-forward. Needs way more bitterness.

Pour is deep golden with a long lasting fluffy head. Aroma is of strong hops and pine. Much hops in the flavor but there is a bit of a harsh finish to the brew. Pretty good brew overall. Alcohol is well hidden.

copper,light sweet hop , smooth juicy pine hop with nice sweet maltyness. tart pine hop in linger

Bottled. Poured hazy medium golden without any head sticking around. The aroma picked up sweet wet grains and perfumey hoppage over a light fruity base.. spicy and kinda boozy on the back. The flavor was quite aggressive with floral and citrusy bitterness amplified by booze over caramel and toffee sweetness.. finished strong with peppery alcohol and moderate citrus bitterness. Medium-bodied and syrupy at times on the palate.. low carbonation.. decent feel at best. I didn’t care for this.

Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured a hazy red-orange color with a large orange-white head. The aroma was dryish and tangy, slightly earthy and had sour fruity hops. The flavor was tangy, bitter, sour and a bit off. There was a nutty malt note and a hint of butterscotch with faint fruity hops finishing off. This is not even close to being an IPA and there was too much odd sour bitterness for this to be enjoyable. Another poor effort.

Bottle from GBBF 08. Slight haze, amber, lasting thickish beige head. A more malty IPA with somewhat restrained hop. Quite bitter on finish. Some decent fruit salad. Some buttery malt, not much of an IPA to be honest, but still quite bitter on the end.

12oz brown bottle from The Lighthouse in Manchester. Pours a hazy amber-red body with a half inch or so of off-white head. Orange, grapefruit, and pith hit you over the head in the aroma, very pleasing and expected. Tastes like caramel malt with an equal parts orange and pith to balance it out. Full slightly slick body with surprisingly little carbonation. Clean on the finish, despite the lack of carbonation - this beer stops well short of viscosity, which helps. A solid IPA for sure, plenty of hops without losing a sense of balance. Good stuff.

Decent beer. Does not stand out in any way. Surprisingly weak for a 7% IPA. No taste of alcohol. Bitter grapefruit hop flavor with some malt. Some strange flavoring and acidity prevented this from being better. Pretty drinkable and mild overall.