Lost Coast Indica India Pale Ale

Brewed by Lost Coast Brewery & Cafe
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Eureka, California USA

I did not like this one as much as I thought I would. I like Lost Coast beers and this one was somewhat of a letdown. Nothing really wrong with it...just mediocre.

Thanks to Kook. Orangey amber body with a grapefruity and floral aroma. Pretty flat taste, light to medium body with too much malt showing to be a great IPA.

Nice hazed dark copper, offwhite sticky/creamy head. Citrusy hop aroma. Dusty yeast I think covering it. Sweet fruity hops with nice caramel backing with the yeast drying it out. Good hop flavor, different, but the same as far as an IPA goes. Different enough for me to like it.

Cheers to ’Kook’, tasted at his home coming gathering.
Poured a hazy, orange gold with slow to release, fine carbonation. Head was a messed up lather of beige that lasted and legged it well smearing the glass with its pent up anger. Aroma was big and in your face, but like your ’fatter’ mate after playing a round of football, ’he don’t but awfully send the nose adrift’. This reeked of funked up diacetyl, like melting strands of butter with a little fresh baked white bread and caramel. Could have been a dieters worst nightmare. Some pineapple, and doughy cantaloupe loop it, but it didn’t allure this sly fox on the night (a fresher sample maybe?). Big, toasted, sweet starchy malts in the mouth, again doughy like these bread rolls were prematurely pulled from the griller and lathered in butter. Heavy. Body is quite big, the carbonation (served up at room temperature) quite subtle and unhindering. The finish dry and rather smooth. Back end had some soft apple, cantaloupe and maybe some marmalade, with such a poor finish I swear this had no peak and just continued on its gluggy way down the gullet. Too much length, too messy an arrangement. Not good. (1 pint, 6 fl.oz, date unknown)

I was a bit over zealous on the pour so this beer sits with a chunky, fairly hazy, amber red color. It is topped by a frothy, whipped, initially three-finger thick, amber-tinted, tan colored head that leaves some lacing patterns on the side of the glass. The aroma is nicely hoppy, though not screamingly so; it has notes of grapefruit, cinnamon-tinged pine and orange. There is a solid backdrop of caramelized crystal malt character and a subtly toasty grain note underneath the hops.

The beer has a sharp biting character from the get go, it finishes with a lingeringly bitter hop note that really scratches my hop itch. Notes of grapefruit and tangerine intermingle with an herbal pine note and a caramelized malt character. The beer has a certain heft to it; both the hop bitterness and the caramelized malt tend to linger on the palate after a sip. Despite the predominant hop character, this really has a rich, balancing maltiness to it as well. Chewy caramel toffee malt notes really help to cut through the biting hop notes; the malt never really lets the hops dominate, though it certainly gives it a go. This is quite enjoyable, it is refreshingly balanced for an IPA, though don’t get me wrong, it is certainly hop focused. In fact with all this malt, it could use a touch more hops to satisfy the clamoring hop-heads. As for myself, though I certainly enjoy my hops, I am going to savor this tipple till I only have lacy foam left on the side of my glass.

Purchased: <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? Liquors, Tucson, AZ

Bottle. Orange amber, low golden head. Nice orangepeel and pine aroma. Orange base, light heather and perfume. Medium to light body. Bitter finish, quickly tapering off.

Bottled (rating #2100, thanks Degarth). Hazy nutbrown colour, huge beige fluffy, longlasting head. Aroma is grapefruits and flowery hops. Also some caramel malts noteable. Flavour is grassy and flowery hops mixed with fruity hints. Nice biting carbonation. Finish is grassy hops and the grassyness stays for long in the aftertaste, and also has some caramellish hints in it. Dry and biting bitterness. Surprisingly interesting and drinkable IPA.

12 oz bottle pours orangish with a thick off white head. Nice grapefruit citrus hop and malt aromas. The hop profile is very complex. Obviously using many different hop variteties to achieve an orange grapefruit citrus bitterness that covers the tongue intensely to let only a bit of carmel malt come through. Nice lasting bitterness that you can feel on the sides of your tongue. i wish i had the date on the bottle, b/c this had to be very fresh. Excellent single i.