Lakefront IPA

Brewed by Lakefront Brewery
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

Pours a nice golden amber with a 1 fingercreamy off white head. Aroma is is big on caramel, toffee, crusty bread, floral and citrus hops. Flavor is heavy on pine hops, a little soap and very little citrus for the style. Malt is caramel, a little toffee, sweet bread, toast and some grain. FInish has some yeasty spice, citrus, and bitter hops, a bit of fruity soap, and some toast that seems to carry on a long while.

12 oz; bottled Feb, week 1. Lightly cloudy orange-amber. Humongous, annoying head that takes forever to settle down. Nice sticky frosting all over the glass, though. Aroma of lemon peel and slight plastic. Taste is initially plasticy caramel, with a peppery wood and lemon cough drop finish. Lemony hop and/or yeast takes some getting used to, but not bad. Light-medium body is nice and smooth with a dryish finish.

Bottle from Tipsy’s Liquor World, Denver, I quite like the label on this one. Pours a pale/ish amber with a big, fluffy off white head despite a gentle pour. Flowery/citrus hops and pale malts in the nose, a tad cheesy. Flavor is slightly soapy with bitter floral/citrus hops and underlying pale malts. Lots of sediment in last pour that adds haze, nice bitter length and although it’s not unpleasant by any means, has no real dominant character overall.

Bottle. Pours a golden color with a longlasting off-white head. Has a malty crisp hoppy aroma with some hints of citrus. Sweetish malty hoppy grapefruit flavor. Has a sweetish malty hoppy finish with a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Bottle notched August wk 4. Big aroma...you can smell it as soon as you lift the cap. Hazy pale orange, and the foam leaves a trail on the side of the glass. Not the punchiest IPA. Malts are balanced with citrus and floral hops. Good beer, if you don’t need to be blown away.

<b>Bottled May Wk4; Sampled November 2008</b>
A vigorous pour produces an almost four-finger thick, light tan colored head in my 25cl tulip glass. The beer is a nice copper color that shows a lightly hazed, bright copper hue when held up to the light. The aroma smells of sticky hops, pine, grapefruit and sweetened lemon zest as well as lots of biscuit like malt, some crystal malt sweetness and some cracker notes in the finish. After a bit I start to notice more of the herbal / pine, though there is still a soft citrus character in the nose.

Lots of herbal hop character is noticeable as the beer first hits my mouth, a substantial pine needle backbone runs throughout as well. The beer finishes fairly smooth, with very little bitterness noticeable after the first sip. My second sip has me noticing a solid bitterness that is noticeable as the beer rolls across the tongue; strangely though (or perhaps more aptly said, atypically) the bitterness quickly disappears and does not linger on in the finish at all. The finish is fairly smooth with a light menthol hop notes and some sweet, pale crystal malt sweetness. Some citrus hop flavors are noticeable as well. The malt plays a secondary role here, but does provide a fair amount of sweet, pale crystal malt notes and some lightly toasty grain notes that reminds me of saltine crackers. This has a nice, light, quaffable body to it that is just about perfect for an IPA.

Not a bad beer, the fact that this beer has no real lingering presence on the tongue is definitely interesting and I definitely feel like I miss the lingering hop presence that is in a typical IPA, but this is still fairly enjoyable. Not as bracingly hoppy as many of the newer aggressive IPAs, which is sort of a nice change of pace (you might even confuse this from a hoppy pale ale).

12oz bottle. Hazy yellow with a bit of orange on the edges, nice white head. Nice little hop aroma, crisp. Nice fruity hop flavor as well, pretty good drinking IPA.

Bottled sample courtesy of Piscator. Pours a bit orange in colour. Somewhat hoppy finish. Medium carbonation. Drinkable beer.