Mad River Jamaica Sunset IPA

Brewed by Mad River Brewery
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Blue Lake, California USA

This is an IPA in name only. 35 Ibu bittering , the style gudelines call for a minimum of 40. sweet malty nose with some biscuit and honeydew qualities. Very backend soft bitterness with a cascade citrus dryhopping. Clean finish somewhat sweet.

From the bottle this brew pours a clear orange with a tall white head. Aroma is mostly citrus hops, but a metallic smell kinda gets in the way. Taste is lightly sweet up front, faint hint of caramel, with a big bitter finish, but lacking a lot of hop flavor.

Attractive clear light orange with large and good looking head of foam, like most of the Mad River beers. Aroma is subtle with a touch of fruit aromatics and dry hopped characteristics. Flavor is extremely light for the style, much more a pale ale than an IPA, with a floral hop character and, a light bitterness and a minute malt contribution. Pleasant.

Hazy amber body under a frothy white head. Nose was sweet, hoppy, malty. Lively carbonation and medium body. Flavor was crisp and refreshing but nothing outstanding. Nice balance of hoppiness and maltiness.

Bottle. Courtesy of jasonp, I believe. Thanks! Pours orange amber with a small white head. Aroma is slightly piney and very citrusy hops. Light sweetened fruit notes and flowers are intermingled in this as well. Taste is semi-sweet with citrusy hop fruit flavors and lighter maltiness. Sort of a bubblegum note as well. Body is slightly oily and has a nice crisp dryness to it. The finish is more hops and semi-sweet citrus fruit with lighter malt and light spices coming through. Not bad at all!

(12 oz bottle: Whole Foods in La Jolla, CA; 24-Dec-05) My previous notes on this beer from 1999 indicate a slightly sweet maltiness in this brew, but mostly what I’m getting tonight is moderately sour citrus along with some spicy hops along for the ride. The sourness is strong enough (though not outrageous) to assume I have a bad bottle. The nose is pretty sour as well. Tart mouthfeel. Pours a cloudy, dark yellow color and a small white head that settles to a small ring around the glass. Some patchy lacing here and there. I’m only rating this in case it’s supposed to be like this, but I will certainly retry when I find a new bottle. (grades: 4/2/4/2/7)<hr>(12 oz bottle: Hi-Time Wine Cellars in Costa Mesa, CA; 31-Jan-05) Okay, so this is a fresh bottle, just purchased from a different store. And yes, once again, there’s definitely a tart, spicy, citrusy bitterness dominating the brew, but it’s not like and "ew, that aweful" sour, but strangely pleasant and seems like it belongs this time. The citrus is lemon and grapefruit, with some background orange for a moderate sweetness that juxtaposes nicely with the tart hops. But this is an IPA without much maltiness, and really, it’s dominated by fruity citrus notes. Citrusy, moderately sour nose lacks the sweetness of the flavor. Fairly crisp on the palate, but there’s enough sweetness to give the palate some depth. Medium yellow in color and quite cloudy in appearance. Whitish head retains a thin layer for the entire session, and leaves patches of dense, thick lace on the glass. Not ordinarily my type of IPA, but this one is strangely appealing to me.

Draft. Amber color with an off-white head. Grapefruit aroma. Balanced flavor of grapefruit, malt sweetness, some pine tar. Easy drinking.

Hazy, pale golden color, nice, flush white head, stalwart, slowly, but surely diminishing, ...Aroma: spicy, citric, hoppy nose, pungent garpefrit, and peach pits, orange zest, and pineapple pulp, a little sour, and very tangy. very lively. Those flavors return in the taste, but are accompanied by a huge sourness, an outsized citric twist on the palate, a little too unlean for me. Medium-bodied, with a big blast on first entry, a rounded fruity flavor, then thinning some, but not losing any of the bitterness. It rides long and zestily in the mouth, before eventually fading away. Long, fruity, bitter finish. Very likable, this one, milder in the hop delivery than I like in my IPAs, but you can’t please everyone. This ought to please plenty of folks just fine, and, heck, I like it a bit, too!