Mash House Hoppy Hour IPA

Brewed by The Mash House Restaurant & Brewery
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Fayetteville, North Carolina USA

Cloudy orange color with a nice creamy lacy head. Aroma is very dry hops like a saison almost. Flavor is incredibly dry and grassy. Spicy. Not my thing. One dimensional.

Picked this one up on a recent trip to TN. Nice hoppiness with a well balanced malty backbone. Cool label adds to the enjoyment.

On tap at Barley’s in Knoxville, Tennessee. Poured copper, with a nice, white head. Floral, yeasty nose, citrusy, malty flavor, with a big hop finish. Excellent! My only regret was that the keg was spent after only half a glass, so I had to switch to a different IPA.

Bottle @ the Fox & Parrot. Pours a dark gold with an average white head. There is dominant citrus in the aroma with some grainy notes and faint sweetness. The hops come out in the flavor mostly in the form of juicy oranges and a lick of salt. Notes of grass, grains, and thin caramel are detected as well. This finishes biting and lemony with faint diacytl. (Draught on January 29, ’07) Revisited this one since my buddy spoke so highly of this. It was a lot cleaner and more distinct on my second sampling. This could be due to actually sampling it from the brewpub, maybe not. Anyway, the bright grapefruit and citrus is very well defined here and the malts are juicy and well balanced.

Bottle courtesy of ross. Pours copper with a big frothy head. Earthy hops initially dominate the nose before giving way to some subtle citrus. Taste is earthy with some grassy elements. Bitterness dominates on the finish. Thanks, ross!

Bottle.

Pours orange with a white head. The aroma is surprisingly malty, with enough cascade citrus aroma to make it clear that this is an IPA. Hints of grass as well. While not in-your-face, the hops come more directly to the front in the flavor, but this is still well-balanced; the caramel malts hold their own (though the lend a slight saltiness to the overall feel). Mouthfeel is fine, finish is a bit...sharply bitter in the way a cascade finish can be.

Overall, I’m quite pleasantly surprised by the beer. I’m not I’d drink it commonly even if I could get it locally, but it’s certainly better than many of the regular standbys that we get around Seattle.

I was very impressed with this offering from a local NC brewer. Pours slightly off-hazed amber-orange into the glass with an almost completely diminished head... leaves some webbed suds lacing behind. Nice grapefruit and crisp hop nose. The grapefruit is noted in the flavor, along with citrus and sweet malts. The Cascades really show up in the finish, with a nice trace of pine to boot. The Cascades linger around to pepper the back palate.... nicely. Mouthfeel is vivacious and lively. Overall, a good IPA. Much better than I was expecting.

A solid ipa from Fayettenam. Was actually very impressed to see that Fayetteville had a craft brewery. And this ipa, ipa being my favorite session style, is right up there. Very quaffable. Nothing really stands out as new and different, but the hop character and malt backbone hold their own in a world where every craft brewery has an ipa. Impressive, considering.