robertsreality (2462), Minnesota, USA Dec 28, 2005 Brown Coloring with Sandy Head. Piney..Light Hop Aroma. Piney, Hop Taste...Dry Hop Aftertaste. Pretty Solid IPA badgerben (3066), Blaine, Minnesota, USA Jul 30, 2005 Light bronze color with a medium head. Strong malt aroma with a heap of pine. Mild bitter taste up front. Alcoholic finish. This really tasted more malty than most IPAs, more like an IPA/Brown Ale hybrid without the nut. beermatrix (1497), Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA Jul 25, 2005 On-tap at the brewpub: Blurry dark coppery color with a starchy whirish head of foam just under a half inch tall. Keeps an adequate skimming and collar and the lacing is very nice in bountiful broken sheeting.
Aroma is deceptively dark and foreboding with pine sap and toffee. Slight buttery toasty factions add some extra depth along with a very low key floral grapefruit hop note.
Taste is about the same. Deceptively dark in the piney hops, bits of greasy, buttery, toasty, broad breads and toffee beef it out. Very tiny amounts of bitterness within a grapefruity squeezed melon ball malted sweetness. Borderline pale ale like with a toasty malty lean. Hops are evident with a brief grapefruity bitterness, but is whiped clean by the buttery toasted malts.
Feel is clean and creamy with a good portion of malty butteryness and sweetening. Seems a little light on the body where it finishes but its pretty beefy from front to middle with a malt sided balance throughout.
A pretty drinkable brew; had two full pints without any problem and was itching for another as it goes down well and keeps you interested enough to keep with it. This reminded me alot of the Galena at Town Hall. Good stuff. Not a true hop monster by any means, just hoppy enough with a bit of bitterness to its caption. Greasy, dark, yet clean, sweet and hoppy. Pigfoot (2225), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Jul 16, 2005 Clear, with near-crimson coloration, slim head.
Aroma, dark fruits, berries and cherries, grapes, juicy, but none too bitter, not so hoppy...interesting, though...
Hop bitterness appears, finally at the end of the first gulp, but it’s very minor...plays lightly on the palate, runs through the finish, but doesn’t provide enough of a spark. The flavor is nice, fruity, sweet, but doesn’t do what an American IPA ought to, like stand up and smack your tongue around a bit. Their cask IPA, Tartar control, does that in small doses...more like an English-style...or do I say that because I can’t taste any West Coast-y, Cascade, Centennial, Amarillo-type hops?
An okey-dokey ale from a getting-better brewpub. I’ll keep checking back to chart their progress.
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