Pelican India Pelican Ale

Brewed by Pelican Pub & Brewery
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Pacific City, Oregon USA

Tap at Uber 9/30/06.

I’ve wanted to try this beer for over a year, and I’m not disappointed! This is really good stuff. It pours a beautiful clear copper with a lovely and long lived whipped-butter color head. The aroma is spectacular (at risk of a synesthesial metaphor): powerful with marvellous nectarine and floral hop aromas that somehow avoid all of the astringent aspects of other strongly hopped aromas while at the same offering an incredibly rich strong nose. The flavor is also good but it can’t quite keep up with the aroma; it begins with some herbal tones and sweet fruit juices; through the middle we get mildly sweet malts strong enoug to balance the whole thing out, along with the expected citric hop flavors.

This one lived up to my very high expectations, and I look forward to my next chance to try it.

Bottle 7/9/07. As before, astonishing aroma - rich sweet pineapple juice and nectarine, incredibly full, very close to a 10. Flavor is good, relatively dry given the sweet aroma, but short on the malt backbone. Original numbers stand.

Pours a clear amber with some bubbles streaming up from the bottom and feeding a thick creamy beige head that leaves excellent lacing and lingers as a cap for the duration. There’s no mistaking the big citrus aroma from the Cascade hops - pineapple and grapefruit come to mind. There is a sweet and lightly toasted beady malt aroma in the background. The taste is more of the Cascade goodness with a big wallop of hop bitterness right up front. The bitterness is barely balanced by the malty backbone before the huge biting pine and grapefruit hop presence leaves a tingling bitterness on the tongue after each sip. The mouthfeel is light to medium bodied with strong carbonation, but the flavors are so big that the lighter mouthfeel doesn’t take away from the beer. In fact, it makes the drinkability much higher than a fuller bodied beer with the same bitterness profile. A top-notch West Coast IPA.

Large, white head atop a clear amber body. Pleasant, if not somewhat subdued, nose of pine, resin, grapefruit and flowers. The flavor only hints at malt sweetness, and is dominated by bitterness. The taste is full of floral hops, soap, grapefruit. Medium body with a sticky texture. Fizzy carbonation. Long finish that is moderately acidic.

22 oz bottle from Sam’s South Loop (Chicago, IL). Pours a bright golden amber, lighter hued than usual, transparent, big offwhite cakey head that stays moderate in size, laces pretty well. Aromas throw off moderate hoppiness, florals and citrus greet the nose, not as intense as hoped for, with light resinous pine and light carmel and pale malts. Decent. Initial is lighter bodied, but still packing some good flavor. Citrusy lemon and flower good pine and some carmel, but moreso pale malts. Bitterness evolves strongly. Age might play a factor, but malt doesn’t seem like it would hold much up to fresher/stronger hopping. Finish is clean, lingering pale sweetness, good strong piney quality, with citrusy lemon hop and bitterness sticking well enough. Elements of an APA, and IPA. Hybrid.

Light copper with good head. Big bitter cascade hops in the taste and aroma. LOVE IT. Floral and citrus. The malt is there...but it’s an afterthough, which is just fine with me. Not overaly bitter...just damned good.

Pours a murky amber with a white head that leaves some lacing on the glass. Citrusy hop aroma. Taste is predominantly hops, but lacking a well-balanced malt backbone and the depth of character of the more world-class brews. Overall it has excellent hop flavor and is a very good IPA, but lacks the depth and character to be amongst the very best.

22 oz. bomber courtesy of CelticBrew and shared with him and Doboy on 5/23/08. Clear gold with a medium white head that persists nicely. Huge fresh hop aroma of citrus and pine over a base of honey. They must have dumped a tractor trailer full of hops into the fermenter.

Medium body and carbonation as expected, and a very resinous, lip smacking mouthfeel. Quite bitter right from the start, and although a substantial malt base provides some balance, it’s definitely not the main event.

A long, bitter finish of citrus zest brings things to an end. A hophead’s delight, but just a bit unbalanced I think. Still, very enjoyable, but not for the novice.

Big nose of citrus from the start. Huge white head on this copper colored ale. Nice touch of honey before the hops take over for the finish.