Marin I.P.A. India Pale Ale

Brewed by Marin Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Larkspur, California USA

Aroma of grapefruit, orange, lavender. Appears a hazy yellow-orange-brown color. Flavor is bitter-hoppy but well-balanced by finishing malt. Palate is sharp, bitter and a bit slick. Overall, this beer is greater than or equal to the sum of its parts.

Bottle. Pours a honey amber color with a big offwhite head, nice lacing on the side of the glass. Big hop smell, piney, citrusy. Smooth and silky on the palate with a bitter finish. Medium bodied and quite pleasant on a warm day.

Nice hearty earthy hops in the nose, some amarillos or something, a bit of malty sweetness. The flavor is rich and creamy, nice and palatable. Finishes lucid and a bit bitter. An overall good IPA to drink out of the bottle illegally in a public park.

Bottle. Pours a orangey copper color, white head, slightly opaque with a little bit of yeast sediment in the second pour. Aroma is a floral, citrusy hoppy scent, pungent and enticing. Upon taking a sip I notice that it’s not particularly sweet, some of the better IPA’s that I’ve had a good sweet maltiness going on, but not so much here. Nice hoppy flavor, grapefruits mostly, a little bit of yeast flavor (though that may be my unwillingness to leave behind any liquid more than anything else), finish is nicely bitter and resilient. Medium body, carbonation level is on the low side, a little stickiness in the mouth. Very drinkable at 7% (according to my bottle), a decent session IPA.

Pours a clear amber with a tightly-knit white head. Med. C-hop aroma with some nice caramel notes in the background. Well-balanced flavor of grapefruit and orangey hops and the caramel malts that support them. Clean ferment. Med bodied. Nice med. resiny bitterness with a long finish. A well made IPA that does not try to go over the top in the hops department but instead balances the ingredients to make a great tasting beer.

Slightly hazy dark orange amber. Filmy white head. Cascade hop aromatics. Slight malty backbone smothered by floral acrid notes and a resinous bitterness that continues into the finish. Mouthfeel is rather watery.

Came out gloomy with flakes of dust floating and had foamy thick head. A nose full of hops and tiny grapefruit citrus aroma. Actually less flavorul then the aroma lead me to think, but some bittering hops will be the only thing out of the ordinary here. Way over rated.

They certainly built up the hoppiness of this one, but I didn’t find it particularly hoppy. I was more intruiged by the citrus and fruit flavors that are more dominant throughout. The head was nice and fluffy, and the lace on the class was nice.