Johanssons Hoodlehead IPA

Clear light amber body with a small off-white head. The nose is caramel, flowers and citrus. The flavor is grapefruit, caramel, tea and pine. Bitterness is a bit rough and chunky. Medium body is round with moderate carbonation.

Pint at the brewery. 30-40% opaque, color is red-tinged amber. Soppy, globular spotted lacing on the glass, but the beer-head interface dies rather quickly, leaving a thick ring of spotty lacing on the glass but no head at all. Hoppy c-note nose, centers around some grapefruit, lemon and mandarin orange hop scents, some metallic notes and cream in there as well, but overall it seems a bit consumed by a very rough homebrew-ish yeast quality. Flavor-wise you can pick it up even more, with a earthy, gritty doughy texture. Can’t complain too much, though, since overall it actually tastes good – fruit, some honey, some oily (not grassy) hops. Wet and slick and oily on the palate, finishing with more honey, sweet orange and pine hop flavors, although again it’s a little too heavy with muddy yeast.

Draft at the brewpub, July 2006. A hazy orange beer with a thin beige head. The aroma is sweet with light notes of fruit and hops, the hops also giving it light notes of grass, and lemon. The flavor is nicely fresh hoppy on a good caramel and malt back ground. The alfa acids from the hops bites lightly in the tongue.

Tap. A nice cloudy straw color. Very hoppy up front with a nice faint finish. A very good IPA for a very decent price at the bar.

Had a cask-conditioned glass. Wow, could it be any fresher? I thought I was sucking the beer through fresh hops! Very nice and alive with a yeasty clampdown on a major hopfest (in a good way). Only downside, the malt was kept in the background. Very nice and easy to drink.