Otter Creek 15th Anniversary IPA

Brewed by Otter Creek Brewing
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Middlebury, Vermont USA

Bottle. (Bomber) Pours a golden amber with a long lastimg off-while head. Nose is pine and caramel. Flavor is a malt camoflauge for the hop attack, leaning actually a tad too much to the malt side. Some sweetness that cresendoed in a bitter finish. Not bad, but not great either..

Bomber. Poured a medium shade of amber with a short cap of white head... rather thorough lacing followed. The aroma found pine resin and squeezed grapefruit with rum-soaked caramel and herbal hops... nice but subdued. The flavor was led by dark, sticky sugars... caramel and grapefruit meat... with a bit too much alcohol presence. There was an almost molasses-like stickiness to it... lots of herbal bitterness, too. Finish was a tad syrupy. Medium-bodied with rising bitterness toward the finish. Overall a solid brew.

(22 oz bottle: Obtained 09-Jun-06 in trade with Otter, thanks Jeremy!) 15 years in business, and I’ve been drinking Otter Creek brews since almost the beginning. Piney hop bitterness and toasty, medium-sweet caramel maltiness combine to thrill my taste buds with a nicely done, Anniversary-worthy IPA. Well-balanced and very flavorful, lots of hops but lots of malt too, the kind of IPA I really enjoy. Herbal, caramely, sweet, perhaps a bit alcoholic, but the nose is certainly aromatic and quite enjoyable. Medium-full in body with a good, hoppy crispness in the finish. Carbonation is about average. The body is a rich-looking amber color with a slight haze and a few streams of very tiny carbonation bubbles. The light-tan head doesn’t rise to more than a quarter inch on the pour and settles to a partial film atop the beer. So not so good there, but the lacing truly fits the term, a delicate patchwork of fine threads decorates a good portion of the glass. A solid effort from the folks in Middlebury. Here’s to another 15 years!

Kind of a ducky caramel color, with some lacing, but a nearly completely dimishing head. Aromas are hopcit, pine and some smoke. Lots of hop flavors, bitter and grabby, with some more-apparent-than-most malts backing the lead vocals here. Palate is short and kind of clean. An unapologetic IPA, but nothing truly special in my book.

22 oz bottle ... Poured into a still pond of shiny orange with a sticky, rocky head. Fun aroma ... tease of the pine forest. Equally entertaining flavors ... nice syrupy hoppiness, almost a nutty maltiness and a bit of whole wheat bread. Fuller backbone than many IPAs, but still has the hop kicker. Nice.

Body is a cloudy light amber with a thin beige head. Aroma is very sweet and bready, with noticeable alcohol. Flavor is very sweet with a decidedly un-IPAish hoppiness. The hops are drowned out by a lot of booziness, way too much for a sub 7% brew. Finishes sticky and sweet. Not that great.

Bought this bottle straight from the brewery in Vermont.

Very attractive translucent orangey maple, My tulip glass had a huge amount of fluffy cloud head that clung true all the way. My drinking buddy’s Duvel snifter showed a lot less head.
Hoppy mix of herbs pine and a medicinal character that mish-mashes, but the latter seems to end up dominating in the end (english varietal?).
A sweet maltyness that reminded me of X-mas cookies, it was totally chewy and filling, too. Bitterness levels were relatively mellow, and had just enough alcohol to make it’s presence felt without overstaying it’s welcome. Finish was bittersweet like a mouthful of honey. I wasn’t too sold on the aroma, but the body and overall taste really delivered.

Sampled at RBSG 2006- Grand Tasting. Dark yellow beer with a hoppy nose. Kind of choppy. Finishes in a grassy sort of way. This is an OK beer, but not worth the hype. Just not delicious.