Fire Station 5 Steam Pumper IPA

Brewed by Portland Brewing Company (Pyramid)
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Portland, Oregon USA

(12 oz bottle: Gift from SDbruboy, thanks Cliff!) I thought this was yet another brewery started by firemen, but it’s a hoax this time. This beer has a nice, citrusy hoppiness, but the odd, husky graininess of the underlying malt base isn’t the most pleasant. A grapefruit peel bitterness emerges in the finish and isn’t especially enjoyable either. A decent nose though, some herbal tea and grainy malts providing the most evident aromas. Medium-bodied with average carbonation and a decent crispness late in the finish. Golden-colored body is slightly hazy, but the wide column of bubbles rising through the center of the glass are still plainly visible. The smallish, off-white head is fairly creamy and remarkably persistent. A mediocre IPA that I certainly won’t go searching out when San Diego is loaded with excellent IPAs.

Bottle. Poured hazy copper with an average frothy white head that was mostly lasting with good lacing. Moderate sour citrus hoppy aroma. Medium body with soft carbonation. Medium bitter citrus flavor with a medium bitter smooth finish of moderate duration.

12 oz Bottle pours out a amber/yellow topped off with a off white head. A nice hops aroma. But the flavor was a let down not the hops I was hopeing for.

Bottle. <!-- p --> Pours a clear orange amber with a nice white head. The aroma is cascade hops - citrus with a hint of dry grass and little else. The flavor is a relatively mild by west-coast standards but nice enough cascade bitterness, a little bit of biscuit malt, orange and grapefruit peels with a moderate bitter finish. <!-- p --> This is a perfectly quaffable beer, no major flaws. I enjoyed it as a straight forward IPA. That’s the good part. The bad part is that there’s nothing exciting about it, either. It’s just another reasonably good, largely unimaginative, American IPA.

Bottle (thanks argo0). Deep copper color, very carbonated, medium off-white head, nice lacing. Smells like Cascade hops, quite hoppy. Flavor is very hoppy. Malt is in there somewhere, but mostly its hops. Dry finish, aftertaste of grass. Good beer, but a little thin on malt.

(12oz, thanks Bück Dich) Crystal clear light amber body, small white head. Aroma is medium sweet, orange, some grapefruit. Taste is medium sweet, orange/floral, grapefruit, light bread/caramel. Light-medium body. Seems more like an APA.

12 oz. bottle from a six-pack, unexpectedly found at Longs Drugs La Jolla. Pours medium amber, mostly clear with a small white head and trace of lace. Dominant hop aroma, citrus and some floral notes, odd metallic smell along with some biscuity, toasty malts. Flavor also dominated by northwest hop flavors, lemon,and grapefruit primarily, with toasty malts lurking in the background ans a spicy citrus bite in the finish. Medium body with assertive biting carbonation. As a beverage, this is crisp and refreshing , but the flavor profile doesn’t really cut it for me, making it a very average IPA overall.

Extra-pale, light orange-tan and crystal clear. Generous fluffy-white head fades slowly. Orange and citrus aroma, very plesant but not overpowering. First sip...smooth. Too smooth, feels thin and watery in the mouth. Needs much more hop flavor. Not bitter enough. A decent hot-day pale ale but nothing to smack your momma over.