Fort Collins Rocky Mountain IPA

Brewed by Fort Collins Brewery
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

Bottle thanks to Swalden28. Pours a hazy golden brown with a small, white head. Aroma is caramel malt, nut shell, floral hops, pepper and dirt. Taste is hoppy bitterness with light fruit notes and water. Kind of stale. Lively bubbles.

Crushed with Jakebra. Nice, hoppy, sweet caramel nose. Flavor is kinda stale, poopy, and bitter. Not too good. Better than others, but definitely a one-time taster.

Thin off-white head of fine bubbles. Nice sprucy hops aroma with a touch of caramel and some roasted grains. Dark orange in color. Smokey and bitter up front then it kind of lends more towards the piney and dry hops flavors. Very nasally alcohol presence. Lingering strong bitterness and a bit of roasted peanuts. Dry and pasty with just a touch of sweetness. A pretty good IPA and better than I expected.

I like this one, standard caramel malts with a touch of good substance, hops are nice and floral and heavy piney. its got a really good mouth feel. overall its a great example of IPA.

12oz bottle. Pours an off-white head with an amber gold body. Smells of piney hops and sweet. Tastes of apricot and a pine bitter finish. Medium mouthfeel.

This beer is pretty well carbonated, as fairly soft pour easily produces a three-finger thick, light tan colored head in my 25cl tulip glass. The head is nice and dense, it leaves lots of lacing and has quite a bit of staying power to it. The beer is a reddish amber color that shows a lightly hazed, deep copper, amber stained color when held up to the light. The nose smells of grapefruit citrus and pine-like hop notes as well as with a crystal malt driven caramel and toasted note towards the finish. There is also a cracker like malt aromatic that runs throughout the aroma; there is actually quite a bit of malt character here biscuit notes as well as a characteristic maltiness that captures the essence of freshly crushed malt. The hops, that were so prevalent at first, do not completely hide behind the malt though; sweet citrus zest aromas remain noticeable and an herbal note provides a bit of spice in the middle.

Lightly sweet with lots of herbal hop notes that morph to pine as this beer flows across the tongue. Each sip is lightly influenced by a ruby-red-grapefruit like citrus character. This has a nice biting hop bitterness running throughout and this even lingers on the tongue a bit in the finish. The ample malt presence continues in the flavor; there is a soft, caramelized, malt sweetness that anchors a lot of the hop flavors, there is also lots of toasty grain notes (reminiscent of biscuit-like malt). As the beer warms the caramelized crystal malt notes get to be a bit much, this really could use a substantial boos in hop character.

A very malt balanced IPA at this point; luckily the malt character is nicely fresh and vibrant, though it can still be a bit distracting from what should be a beer all about the hop. Perhaps this is a little older than it should be and I would definitely like to try a fresh sample of this beer, though this can’t be that old. Still this is quite tasty.

At Brewery: Poured an amber color with nice head. The aroma was citrus and hops. The flavor was smooth, hoppy, citrus, and a touch of bitterness. Overall, a tasty IPA

Bottle courtesy of Butters on 08/12/2008. Very clear copper amber body with a medium creamy off-white head. Big earthy and floral hop aroma with a big malty background and some citrus hints. More floral and light citrus flavor, smooth caramel background. Medium body with moderate carbonation.