Portsmouth Bottle Rocket IPA

Brewed by Portsmouth Brewery
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

Bottle… Hazy, light golden ale with no real head. Fruity hop nose. Medium-bodied and watery with soft carbonation. Nice toffee sweetness, but the medium to heavily bitter, citric, earthy hops are the floats in this parade. Lengthy, crisp, stingingly bitter finish. Bottle courtesy of jcwattsrugger!

Very light nose with traces of citrus. Pours golden blonde with a thin white head. Very mild flavor hops of a tropical fruit quality, with a mild bitterness. A decent session beer.

bottle courtesy of cletus, thanks man! pours a hazy medium amber color with a 1 finger foamy head as the result of a vigorous pour. aroma is nice with lots of sweetness and some ripe berry notes coming through with a nice sweet dough. taste is nice, its a smooth drinker and would make a damn good session beer, imho. not super complex, just plenty of bitter hops and a touch of malt. finish is good, i gulped 22 oz right down like a glass of water.

7th August 2008. On tap at GBBF. Nice IPA - aromatic fruitiness. Not too dry - very drinkable.

Pours copper with an off white head. Smells and tastes spicy and earthy with some resiny hints. More restrained than Hop Harvest, but enjoyable.

Pours a dark golden orange amber color with golden burnt orange and ripe banana hues when held to a light source and a one finger frothy off-white head that has pretty good retention, only slowly settling into a lasting cap and ring that coats the glass with rings of soapy lacing. Very earthy hop aroma that is kind of vegetal and soil like. Slight citrus notes as well as some earthy pine, alcohol and sweet caramel malt. This beer doesn’t have a lot of the dank oily hop aroma that I prefer in the style but rather smells very (literally) earthy. Slightly chewy resinous mouthfell that is slightly hop forward with vegetal earthy notes and some slight citrus presence. Very dry and piny with a strong malt backbone with hints of caramel and biscuit. Slight alcohol presence towards the end of the palate but there is very little warmth and the ABV is well masked. The piny dry hops linger throughout and the finish is pretty dry but this IPA is a bit too malty for my liking.

Bottle. Amber. A great citrus hop aroma with a nice juicy malt profile. Hops and malt really shine together in harmony.

In short: Discreet malts and biting hops for this crisp, bitter and dry IPA. Tasty, refreshing and very sessionnable.
How: Tap at brewpub
The look: Partly cloudy golden orange body topped by a small white head
In long: Nose of pine tree and oranges. Body is crisp with toasted pale malts providing a light crisp caramel. Nothing big, round or creamy here. A whole lot of hops provide flavours of pine-tree, dry tree bark, grapefruits and some orange peels. The bitterness is sharp and aggressive but the beer remains highly drinkable. For the style this is very much on the dry side. I admit the beer is unbalanced but with that type of hopping that works for the best. Very effective classic American IPA. I don’t think wan can ask for a lot more from a brewpub IPA. I asked my pint for directions to Boston and it didn’t answer. Thus proving my point.