New Glarus Hop Hearty Ale

Brewed by New Glarus Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
New Glarus, Wisconsin USA

Pours a clear, ever so slightly hazy orange amber with a thick fluffy beige head. Nice lacing. Aroma of grass, floral and grapefruity hops with a nice presence of Cascade hops. Taste is grassy and a bit floral with hints of grapefruit and pine. Very nice and enjoyable.

Great Pale Ale. More grassy and caramelly than most pale ales. Aroma is quite hoppy, but not overwhelming. Very smooth pale ale.

i keep trying to compare this in my head to other hoppy IPA’s and APA’s but i can’t find a mold into which to place it. it’s not as strong in the grassy/citrusy/grapefruit direction as most, but it’s still respectable. it finishes too light. i keep going back and forth on this beer. i’m gonna have to defer for now and leave my initial impression up... rerate: this is fucking weird. pours looking like a dark brown opaque barleywine with no head. smells like a barleywine, tastes like a watered-down english barleywine. i didn’t even look at my original rating till just this sentence, but i can see why i had such a hard time placing it in a category. it absolutely smells exactly like the bells 3rd coast old ale, which i’ve had maybe 6 6-packs of. a little less strong though. flavor is similar but way more watered down. i get very faint flavoring hops in the finish, but that’s about it. i have a feeling this must be extremely old because there’s basically no hop character and i don’t know how anybody’d call it an IPA. at least in america. i see it’s got east kent golding hops, which i believe are pretty european. i can maybe buy an english IPA classification. but either way, it’s watery as balls and doesn’t have much going for it except a nicely balanced front end.

My Bottom Line:
Earthy hops are cohesively integrated to the lascivious caramel maltiness of this hearty broth of an IPA. This is not your typically bold American hop blast though, which can definitely be inferred from the beer’s name, but it remains a testament to the brewer’s prowess.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-Creamy foam sticks to the misty reddish orange.
-The soft carbonation perfectly showcases the generous maltiness.
-A light orangey fruitiness is found underneath.
-The smooth leafy hop bitterness hits the spot, yet might not be enough to satisfy those looking for a killer finish.
-Herbal hints in the nose sometimes recall freshly-picked basil leaves, or even mint.

Bottle; thx Mike!

Pours amber with a reddish tint, with a creamy white head. Aroma of hops and citrus. Taste was a good balance of malt and hops with the hops slightly overpowering the sweet malt. Hints of citrus and pine present.

Pretty decent beer, but much maltier than I’d expect from something titled otherwise. But tasty nonetheless.

12 oz bottle via Iowahawkeye (thanks!). Pours a hazy dark amber with a citrusy nose. Taste starts with LOTS of sweet malts, caramel, then some grapefruit, orange, pine, earthy hops, and ends bittersweet, mostly sweet though to the aftertaste. Body is medium/full. Carbonation medium. Pretty tasty.

Chicago trip. Sunday 17:56. Bottle in the hotel room. Deep copper. Lasting thick foam head and lacing. Hoppy nose with some malt presence. More malt than hops. British style or American ESB. Hops do build through the bottle. Nice and drinkable. Balanced more to the malt than the hops. Not a west coast IPA.