Rio Grande India Pale Ale

12 oz. bottle. Per the web site, IBU 78, O.G. 1.053, ABV. 5.8%. Acquired at Trader Joe’s in Santa Fe. Pours a thin off white head, short duration, but with very attractive lacing, over a dark gold (SRM 8) clear body....nose of pine and citrus, with a bit of floral....taste is slightly sweet malts to start and evolves into balancing hop bitterness (grapefruit, pine).....mouth feel is medium, carbonation balances in nicely. This is a fairly typical IPA. It tastes good, the hop level is really there, my only knock on it is the slightly low ABV. They have apparently learned how to brew since the evaluation several years ago.

I guess this isn’t retired any more. Aroma is light hops, some fruitiness. Pours a light amber with little head. Flavor is slightly hoppy, bitter and dry finish. Not really bad in any way, just a little dull, decent with some green chile stew though. . .

22oz Bottle Pour - White Head atop an orange-amber body. Aroma: Much citrus and spice, hoppy to end. Flavor: Sweet, almost syrupy start leads to a dry, bitter end to this medium bodied brew. More roasted hops and the mouth-feel of licking a chainlink fence.. (don’t ask me how I know this)... Overall: Not terrible... but I couldn’t drink this in volume.

Creamy white foam offers a nice topping to the orangey amber hue. Obvious crystal malts bring forth candyish base on which evolve spicy citrusy hops, procuring grapefruit and pineapple notes. Pretty simple earthiness doesn’t retract from the one-dimensional character of the beer. Beginnings of oxidation start to be showing up. Light yet oily body, light, but cleaning carbonation. Fair balance, moderately high bitterness.

(22 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with whaleman, thanks David!) Hey, this is a pretty dark IPA, deep ruddy amber in color, just a touch hazy, and the light tan head is small and bubbly. It smells sweet and caramely, but not really hoppy at all, so that’s not a good sign to me. Hmm, this is a weird one, that’s for sure. Malty flavor, fairly roasty actually, with very minimal sweetness and no sign of that sweet caramel I got in the nose. Wow this is dry. Hops certainly has much more presence here than in the nose, and though it starts off pretty light, it picks up momentum and adds a bit of citrus for a balanced, crisp, moderately bitter finish. As I drink more of this beer, and increase the headspace in the glass, the aroma becomes more of a dry maltiness. Carbonation is pretty low, and the body is quite thin, initially resulting in a watery, totally lifeless mouthfeel until the hops adds a slight sign of life in the finish. Not much though, this is pretty watery stuff. Despite the plethora of large bubbles in the head, retention is decent, and there is plenty of patchy foam left on the glass. So, aside from the nice appearance, this is a pretty mediocre beer, and definitely subpar for an IPA. Quite a unique interpretation though, I must admit. I think the overwhelming impression I have of this beer is that it tastes like unsweetened iced tea.

22 oz. bottle - thanks to Darkelf for sharing this trade. Pours a beautiful deep red-mahogany color with a thn off-white head. Sweet, fruity aroma with pear, and carramel predominantly, no hops to speak of for an IPA. Flavor is most noticibly thin and watery, lightly sweet with slight caramel and some citrus and floral hoppiness. Light body with little carbonation. A bit disappointing overall.

Opened the top and it gushed! A filtered, pasteurized and force carbonated beer gushed. I know, not promising. Poured ver fizzy but settled down into a deep amber beer with a slightly off-white tightly-knit head that stuck around for a while. Very biscuity in the nose with that "house" character. Body is thin and watery. The flavor is very bland without much hops to speak of, and has a rather large wallop of diacetyl followed by some pretty intense astringency. Oxidation is pretty forefront to. The hop bitterness is there in the finish but man is it harsh. Tastes like one of my homebrew failures. This sounds pretty mean but... If you have such sanitation problems in a microbrewery that you feel it necessary to pasteurize the beer then you should either buy a better system or stop brewing. I know, ouch.

22oz bomber-Pours a nice copper hue with a small white head. aroma of diacytl, earthy hop notes, some caramel malts and that buttery note. flavors of earthy pineyness, buttery malts, with some esb-like tea qualitiy. The diacytl is not huge in this beer, but its definately there and it detracts from the overall sucess of this beer. Without it, this would make a decent English IPA/ESB. I coudnt drink the whole bomber. Rio Grande needs help......