Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA

Bottle at Monk’s Café, Wallingatan
Bright copper color; generous creamy head.
Delicate aroma, mixing cookies, cereals, grass, fruity hops, spices; complex, original and stimulating.
Medium body strength, the mouthfeel is very smooth; there is a strong caramel and toffee flavor with the perfect balance of hops (indeed strong) and sweetness (just the required amount); the hops have a light citrusy side.
The final is very long, with toffee and a biscuity hop character.
A wonderful beer, that hits with the strength of the hops and seduces with the harmony and complexity of the potion.

Bottle 12 oz. pours amber to orange and cloudy with lively white head aromas are of hops pine,grapefruit,and caramel malts taste is very bittersweet piney, citrusy and sweet from the malts has a very dry finish long and abrubt

Pours clear light orange, amber with lasting head. Aroma is of resinous citrus hops. Flavor of citrus piney/resin bitterness balanced with malt sweetness, a bit of roasty bitterness, finishing with a warm bitterness. Mouthfeel is average. Overall, a very solid IPA.

Pours a clear fizzy medium yellow with a frothy laced white head. Nose is fruity and citrusy with a touch of pine with some candy a tad of caramel. Aromas carry over mostly but not as much as they should. Citrusy, a little pine, and a touch of a caramel/other malt backbone, as to not be to on the hoppy side.....god forbid....Somewhat dry, bitter, and semi sweet. Doesn’t taste like its a stronger IPA....which is good.

12oz bottle. pours very cleanly, with a golden oragney glow. a shallow bright white head forms roughly a half inch high. big english hops erupt from the glass. more earth than citrus. caramel malt and dried apricots show up as well. flavors of orange zest and intense bitter piney bite. slightly sticky on the tongue. nice lingering finish. a well crafted delight.

Pours a golden straw with an inch-thick foamy head. Aroma is sweet, hardly hoppy at all. Flavor is much more hoppy than the aroma. Very sweet, very hoppy. Good and solid. Delicious.

A solid pour into my large Tripel Karmeliet Tulip produces an almost three-finger thick, lightly amber tinged, off-white colored head that leaves some layered lacing patterns on the sides of the glass as it slowly subsides. The beer is a nicely red-tinged, full copper color that shows a brilliantly clear, burnished, bright, red-copper color when held up to the light. The aroma smells of citrus hops that are not quite polished; perhaps tempered a bit by a cracker-like pale malt aroma that plays a distant secondary role in the nose. Specifically notes of Meyer lemon, ruby-red grapefruit zest, a touch of lychee, and some kumquat notes all contribute a clean citrus hoppiness. The herbal hop notes are really not here at first, but after a bit of time a tempered overlay of hemp oil herbal character becomes noticeable; it provides just enough hop-stench to balance out the otherwise too smooth hop fruitiness. Deep, focused ruminations of the nose bring out more of an herbal, dank character as well as a touch of supporting, clean, pale malt toastiness that would be missed in a cursory pass at the aroma. The nose will be quite enjoyable to any hop lover, I know I am definitely enjoying it.

A nice bitting bitterness gets bigger as the beer rolls across the tongue, it seems to get tempered in the finish by a touch of palate cleaving, smooth malt character. While the beer was pretty dry as the first sip hit my tongue, the middle picks up a light malt sweetness which accentuates ample hop fruit character; this sweetness, though it does fade some, sticks around into the lingering finish. The flavors of this beer are clean and bright; there isn’t much of a rustic malt or hop edge here and I would guess this is somewhat filtered. There is a nice herbal hop edge here that is a bit more noticeable than in the aroma. Notes of pine play a significant role here but still play second fiddle to the fruity hop notes of lychee, tangerine zest, kumquat and ruby-red grapefruit notes. This is definitely quite quaffable; there is just enough body to carry the hops, but it is still dangerously quaffable.

This is certainly not a unique take on the style (but it is an IPA, I am not sure one really wants unique), it is entirely enjoyable. It is perhaps a touch too refined in its bright, clean interpretation of loud hops and supporting malt, but that doesn’t keep it from being a great example of the style.

Pours very clear light orange, almost yellow amber with lasting poofy head. Aroma is of resinous citrusy hops. Flavor follows suit with initial piney/resin bitterness balanced with malt sweetness, followed by citrus, a bit of roasty bitterness, finishing with a warm bitterness on the back of the tongue. Mouthfeel is about average, perhaps somewhat soft or smooth. Overall, a very solid IPA.