Rubicon India Pale Ale

Brewed by Rubicon Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Sacramento, California USA

GABF 09. Pours a light orangey copper with a fluffy head. Aroma is citrus, pine, prickly lemon, light toasty malts, and hints of light carapils- slight dank weed. Flavor is nice prickly hops, lemon, citrus, dank and pine needle- slight harsh cohumulone in the end. Nice overall.

Bottle 22fl.oz.
Clear medium orange amber color with a average, frothy to creamy, good lacing, mostly lasting, off-white to white head. Aroma is moderate malty, caramel, moderate to heavy hoppy, pine, orange. Flavor is moderate to heavy sweet and bitter with a long duration. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft. [20090821]

Bottle, 22oz. It’s a clear, golden beer topped by an off-white head. Lovely aroma with citrus and resins, and a beef-stock like malty sweetness in the back. The flavor has a fine bitterness, citrus and resin, and that same malty sweetness promised by the aroma. Full-bodied, with a bitter and slightly malty-sweet finish. A quite lovely one, blending sweetness and resiny bitterness nicely. 090821

Poured a little darker than yopur standard IPA. Nose was looking for more hop brilliance than was there Taste was a little boring as well, i may be little unfair, having tasted this beer shortly after an Alpine Nelson, but it couldnt have been that great regardless. Decent bready body, fairly balanced, just really needed a pick me up in either hop bitterness or flavor. Lacked character form either aspect.

This is an excellent IPA, almost a paradigmatic a West Coast US IPA in character but nicely balanced in body and bitterness-sweetness as with a British IPA. Light orange, slightly hazy, it has a medium, off-white head that shrinks slowly shrinking. It leaves a little good lace. The aroma is very West Coast but far better, than most with greater depth and complexity. Aromatic and flowery, it has fresh grapefruit, candied orange peel, caramelised grain, and a hint of resin. The taste, very juicy, has slightly bitter orange marmalade throughout, along with subtle grapefruit, syrupy grape juice, toasted grain, preserved fruit, caramel, light leafy-spiciness. The bitterness is dominant but only just and underneath is a firm, fruity-jammy-malty-sweetness.

Pitcher pour at 2009 GABF. Pours a thin head over a dark yellow (SRM 7) body....nose of light citrus, pine.....taste initially is medium sweet malts, with caramel, toffee, finishing with medium hop bitterness.....mouth feel is medium as is carbonation. A pleasant IPA, a bit on the light side for this style. Tasting of 9/26/09.

Bomber with many thanks to gorditoabd. This pours a fairly light and transparent gold (looks very thin), sports a finger and a half of dense head and an aroma that is just plain nice. Not very complex, but I just love the sweet pineapple and citrus hops presence. Flavor is pretty darn good, too. Has a bit of a pine bite to it that my nose didn’t pick up on. Malt is sweet dough-like, but not quite beefy enough and this does seem a little thin. Still, finish is pretty decently hoppy and I’m easy to please.