Lagunitas A Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale

Brewed by Lagunitas Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Petaluma, California USA

Translucent straw-orange body, thin tight clumping head. Bright, rindy citrus nose with sugared grapefruit and pine. Sweet, bitter, and potent. The body has nice bite, dominated by citrus and pine, with light biscuity malts (nothing syrupy) and a big bitter finish. A power-packed, tasty IPA.

Appearance: Pours a lightly hazed, orange-gold body sporting a full inch of off-white foam. Light lacing on the descent. Smell: A nose smelling of wheat fused with some fine hop notes, an aromatic blend of citrusy lemon and grapefruit, some floral orange blossoms, and a small hint of pine. Taste: Lightly sweet, crisp, plainly crackery malted barley and wheat flavor in the fore. Fairly bold hop tastes of flowers, dried herbs, citrus fruits and even some pine. Moderately bitter. Small touch of alcohol in the mix. Finishes dry with a sparse amount of lingering bitterness. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: To be honest, this one quietly slipped in under the radar as I hadn’t heard so much as a peep about it before coming across it at the Brick Store Pub recently. A pleasant surprise and a pleasant combination of wheat and India Pale Ale qualities. Nice job, Lagunitas.

Not quite too sure what happened with this one. Either i’m drinking a different sumpin sumpin or my bottle was way off. Bottle pours gold in color with a thin off-white head. The aroma starts with decent floral hop/pine notes, but quickly gives way to a strange herbal sweat-like nose. Same thing goes for the flavor. The extreme wheatiness of the malt profile is standoffish, and does not pair well with the hop presence. I can tell what they were

Pours a clear light copper color with a white head. Aroma is a touch of caramel, floral, piney, and a hint of citrus. Flavor is some caramel, floral, and a touch of citrus in the bitter finish.

On tap at Rattle ’N’ Hum (NYC): Very sweet aroma almost like cherries. Immediately tastes fruity followed by a slightly mellow, hoppy flavor, yeast, and other faint, chewy candy flavors. Hints of lemon. Overall, a very sweet, delicious, refreshing, very tart (in a good way) beer. I’ll come back to this one.

Bottle. Sweaty candy/sugar syrup hop nose, completely artificial and overly sweet but still somewhat nice. Herbal. Filmy, oily texture. when warm it’s vegetal and corn-like. Sweaty, stenchy, weird.

12 oz bottle courtesy of Siciliano’s (Grand Rapids, MI). Pours a light golden amber, barely any haze, an eggshell yellow head, small and laces a bit, dies to a film. Aromas are floral hoppiness, grass and citrusy lemon are pretty strong. Good pale malts to balance, but fairly hop forward, with good citrus and gumball sweetness. Pretty nice. Initial is a flavorful pale ale, pale malts fall back behind citrusy lemon, grass, prety prominent bitterness with some gumball candy quality, almost wheaty malts mixed in with the pale malts. Finish is pleasantly bitter with mellow sweet pale malts, balanced well and hop forward. A very nice drinker, a very good APA style brew. EDIT - This is an IPA, eh? That makes sense, the brew has a huge Wheat element overall, making it tamer yet hold a higher ABV. It just felt very APA to me overall, aside from the ABV.

On tap at the brewery. Thank you Ron for the hop stoopid and Imperial Stout. One of my favorite breweries. The sumpin sumpin was something else. Delicious a warm IPA, great balance, nice hoppiness with a good amount of malts.