Middle Ages ImPaled Ale

Brewed by Middle Ages Brewing
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Syracuse, New York USA

Bottle: Golden, moderate pancake batter like head, off-white, spotty lacing, virtually no carbonation.   Interesting nose, very subtle hop presense but moreso a cereal like aroma.   Soft vegetable on the tongue, hop bitterness is very low.   Body and mouthfeel are moderate but nearing the thin side.   Flat finish, very little hop presense at this stage.   This seems barely a Pale Ale, let alone an IPA.   Not bad, just extremely boring without any real IPA qualities, as far as I am concerned at least.   West Coast bias perhaps?   Thanks Dan for the bottle!

bottle. clever name! pours a translucent dark orange body with a medium fluffy/creamy white head. aroma is pleasantly hoppy with orange accents as well as having some creamy malts. soft carbonation. starts out with bread flavours and then goes into a very sharp bitterness. somewhat one-dimensional and uninteresting. average.

Pretty nice IPA. Aroma was mostly grassy, pine, citrus fruits. Lots of grapefruit in the taste, with a nice kick of bitterness. Balanced, very drinkable, but very much the same.

Brown-amber, small head. Hoppy enough. Detected some citrus and banana. Wellblended ipa.

Amber body with no head. Aroma is weak hops, some citrus, and caramel. Felt buttery like almost all their beers, but really didn’t think much of this one. I think I’m more into American IPA style IPAs.

Pours a reddish tinged full copper color, with a frothy cream colored head. The aroma is a clashing mix of buttery diacetyl and citrusy hops. The diacetyl seems to dominate, especially up front, but the citrusy notes of grapefruit and orange are definitely here in the last part of the aroma. The taste is lightly sweet up front with a grapefruit note that quickly leads to a lingering bitter finish that has been flavored with buttery diacetyl. Amazingly enough the diacetyl and hops are mixing to form something that is actual drinkable, usually I am so turned off by diacetyl that I end up dumping beers with it. The diacetyl definitely plays a heavy hand here, but the hop character (both flavor and bitterness) hold it in check. The hop character also manifests itself in a dry pine-like character that has hints of menthol around the edges. The bitterness is nice and solid, it in fact grabs hold of my taste buds and shakes them furiously until they tingle. Now I could certainly do without the diacetyl in this beer, but it is not so overpowering that I am not enjoying this beer.

On Tap at the Chapter House in Ithaca, NY. Strong grapefruit notes mixed with a slight mustyness. Tastes very dry and fairly malty, nice for an IPA. A bit more like an English IPA.

This is a really smooth tasting IPA with some floral hints of caramel, pine, and hops. It is malty but not too malty. None of the elements overpower one another, making for a fine IPA. My only criticism is that there is a bit too much water in the flavor of the MA beers but not a lot.