Estes Park Renegade

Brewed by Estes Park Brewery
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Estes Park, Colorado USA

Dark amber color......almost brown, and extremely hazy. No head whatsoever. Subtle floral aroma. Sweet taste of hops up front......very smooth mouthfeel. Finishes with a good hop bitterness. Very unusual for an IPA......this beer doesn’t seem to fit any particular style.

In the bottle from Total Beverage Denver. Pours a muddy tea-colored amber with a very thin off white head. The caramel hop aroma seems slightly spiced. The flavor is very caramel-like. This has a big maltiness and is quite sweet. A medium roasted bitterness lingers. This tastes not unlike a strong cup of tea that has been steeped with a bag of hops. Good flavor, poor head retention. Very low carbonation.

12oz bottle-A dark orange body with a nice head which has an aroma of hops. Taste is the same with a bit of dryness on the back end and a bit of funk along with it. A light to medium bodied brew that wasn’t the worse but was expecting more.

I thought it odd when I noted that this beer was still advertising a GABF win from 1993 (maybe time for a packaging update?), but it did make me curious (and wary that it hadn’t won anything more recently) enough to pick up a single at Liquor Mart in Boulder. It poured a dark amber with a head that seemed to settle upwards much like a Guinness. Aroma was decent...lightly fruity but hardly overpowering. Taste was rather average. Than I noticed a large number of floaties in my beer. This really bothered me - IPAs shouldn’t have floaties! This beer wasn’t aged, stored in a barrel, or secondary fermented, thus my opinion that floaties are not acceptable. I tried to let them settle-out, but they remained suspended in the liquid. I had a really hard time getting past this, and started to negatively effect my perceptions of this beers taste and mouthfeel, making me believe it was stale, cardboard-y, and weirdly slick. I’m not a fan. This bottle had no date nor code on it, so I’m left to assume it was brewery-fresh (delivered to Liquor Mart minutes before my arrival) and rate it as such.

Had this beer on 10/21/1998. Color is a deep orange/brown and very hazy. Carbonation is low with a good head. Aroma has a very strong hop scent to it. Taste is full of hop flavor and bitterness. It starts off with a medium body and a light hop flavor that becomes much stronger as it goes down. This hop flavor is a bit sharp and seems to taste a little like celery. The finish has a good bitterness to it and is full of hop flavor the only problem is that it’s that celery like taste instead of a nice fresh hop taste. Overall it is a well rounded beer with good body and lots of hops, but I don’t like the hops they used.

Had this one bottled thanks to Slothgar! Oily, opaque medium orange pour with only the faintest wisp of a head, plenty of piney hoppiness and a milky mouthfeel, nuanced, nice and bitter but not as sharp or dry as I like. This would make a great training-wheels pale ale.

Date: 08/19/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Ticker Tasting

clear amber, wispy beige head, drippy lace, sweet sugary grapefruit aroma, lots of citrus hop flavor on a sweet caramel backbone, nice long balancing bitterness

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 13/20
Rating: 3.4/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **+/4

Appearance: Pours a slightly hazy copper body with a white head. Smell: Hop-forward aroma of citrus, grapefruit. Small measure of caramel hiding in the background. Taste: Brief caramel malt sweetness before the juicy ruby red grapefruit takes over and carries through into the bitter finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Mild carbonation. Drinkability: So yeah, while it’s not on the cutting edge of IPAs, it is decent.