Mendocino White Hawk Original IPA

Brewed by Mendocino Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Hopland, California USA

12oz bottle. Pale orange in color, not all that impressive in the glass. Some minor lacing. Like all IPAs this one is mostly hops on the nose. Aroma is pine, grapefruit, malt and some interesting grassy tones. This beer was a little dry for my tastes, too bitter. Im a fan of the style but this was lacking some of the crisp, clean flavors of its competitors.

Pours an amber color with an off-white head. Aroma is of citrus and floral hops and some caramel and sweet malts. Flavor is of some earthy spices, citrus and floral hops, and caramel with a slight bitter finish. An okay IPA but not my favorite.

Probably my favorite brew from Mendocino. Pours nice with a frothy head and golden hue. Drinks very smooth with an excellent flavor that lingers nicely. An excellent beer.

RERATING: 2 ounce sample at 99 Bottles beer tasting. I have had this before and was unimpressed due to unbalanced and competing flavors. This was better than my previous bout with it, but still strong and somewhat unbalanced. It poured the color of melted butter and had a thick, lasting head. The flavor was less metallic than last time, but the grapefruit and alcohol flavors that come through are still too strong and "off." A much better experience with White Hawk, however. ORIGINAL RATING (7/10, 3/5, 2/10, 1/5, 5/20, 1.8): 12 ounce bottle. Ugh! This IPA poured the color of melted butter, with a full, frothy, white head that stuck around for quite awhile. It smelled of grass and flowers and citrus—much more orange than grapefruit. Then I tasted it and everything changed. The flavor was overly alcoholic, almost unpleasantly so. The finish was strongly of alcohol and it just continued. The flavor, once I recovered from the initial shock, was really three separate flavors that were competing with one another, none of them preferable over the others. The first was the harsh alcohol flavor. The second was bitter and metallic, similar to what licking a penny tastes like. The third was overly acidic grapefruit, with little orange component, which was a complete contrast to its nose. There was no good flavor on which to redeem this even a little bit. Not recommended.

Body a copper orange, with a dissapating white head. Aroma has some citrus, and floral hops and a perfume like note. Taste is mildly bland, light hops, perfume, pretty dry. Not bad, just a below average IPA.

Very middle of the road for a west coast IPA. The hop aroma and flavor were very faded, mabye not the freshest? Really hard to say anything about it; nothing bad but just not that great of an IPA

Darker yellow color. Pours a white frothy head which is pretty bubbly, but dissipates pretty quickly. Very hoppy as you’d expect, but its not a very citrusy hop. Bitterness on the tongue in the aftertaste.

12oz bottle: Slightly cloudy, medium yellow color with large fluffy pure white head. Aroma is slightly fruity, with notes of cherry, fair amount of light caramel, faint note of noble hops. Flavor has a bit of chewy maltiness, fair amount of herbal hops, hint of cherry, pear, vanilla. Finish is firmly bitter. A decent brew, more in the english style, although with a bitterness level that seems more like an american IPA.