Russian River Blind Pig IPA

Brewed by Russian River Brewing
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Santa Rosa, California USA

500mL Bottle. Thanks Andy! Flickr(http://www.flickr.com/photos/26049401@N Gross. Stinky wet dog and dying cheese aroma, back in there somewhere is a run of grass, but it just comes out smelling a bit like peanut butter, ass and bananas to me. Pours a slightly hazed golden amber, with a beautiful head of lacing white foam. Continuing wet animal and bitterness. This tastes JUST like the disgusting hop bomb that I made a little over a month ago. Wet dog, salty popcorn butter, and compost. In the flavor, hops are able to climb through a little more, but only as a piney bitterness. The hop cheese smoothes out a little, but still perks up in the finish. Hops are fine, I guess, but I really don’t have any interest in considering them amongst the weird stale hop disaster. Without much hop flavor, this seems needlessly bitter, considering that the malt isn’t really keeping up with the unbalanced bitterness.

In a re-calibration of my palate, I’m coming to learn that cheesy, stale, high co-humulone iso-valeric hops create a sensation for me that I had been miscorrectly identifying as diacetyl, which I still cannot, apparently taste. This beer has some funky stale cheese hops going on and I mis-interpreted that. Much less of a brewing flaw than the incorrectly identified diacetyl problem. Re-scored.

Bottled on 7/9/08. Poured slightly hazy golden/orange with a short, sticky cap of white head. The aroma was positively delightful.. pineapple first and foremost with complementary notes of pine resin and tangy floral influence.. the pale backing didn’t do too much, but it was well balanced.. a hair warmer impression than 6.1%, but that wasn’t necessarily bad. The flavor had a little more maltage than the aroma indicated, with bready and other pale malts present.. bitterness was plentiful with grapefruit and a hay/pine cross all over.. finished bitter with less specific character and some alcohol warmth. Medium-bodied and slightly scratchy on the palate from the resiny hops.. juicier on the back with a memorable finish. Great one!

bottle. thanks to drewbeerme for bringing this by on this dreary saturday afternoon.... pours a hazy light orange with a thin circular soapy white head.... citrusy grapefruit nose that is pretty assertive which i found to be pretty nice....flavors are citrusy with some grass and a nice dry bitter finish.

Thanks to cloudskipper for this one. Very pale orange-golden beer with a sticky white head. Nice bright hoppy aroma. Light pine and citrus along with a nice light honeyed sweetness. Flavour is nice and hoppy. Sticky resinousness over a soft pale malt base. Nicely tropical and lightly citrusy but it is much leaner on both the hop aroma and flavour than I was expecting. Still a very well-made IPA.

Big thanks to zythum for the trade! This beer pours an orange color with a thick off-white head. Lots of lacing. Aroma is really nice and hoppy with a pine scent, floral and citrusy. The flavor consists of a generous amount of piney hops with some citrus orange as well as a little lemon. Crisp bitterness and a bit dry in the finish. Nice malt backing too. This is terrific and can probably stand up to any IPA out there. Thanks again zythum! This was even better the second time I had it, if that’s possible.

Pours from 500 ml bottle a light orange hue, forming a nice head of foam. Aroma strong of grapefruits, hops, pine resins, with field grass flowers. Flavour of the same, perfectly balanced, sticky mouth feel. Not exactly a hop bomb, but close enough to appreciate the balanced that RR has done in producing this fine beer. Hops, malts, in perfect harmony with one another, both bitter and somewhat sweet. Simply an unbelievable IPA, pure bliss with each lovely gulp. IPA lovers delight!

From .5l bottle. Light golden with a off-white head and decent lace. Huge aroma of powerful hops. Full flavored ale with slightly oily aftertaste. Definitely in the West Coast style.

07.09.2008 bottling date. Clear amber with a tight white head. Big aroma is grapefruit with a hint of caramel. Medium body. Big bitter grapefruit is about the only hop i can taste here, and there is very little malt sweetness to temper it. Man, i haven’t drank this bitter an ipa in a long time. Pass me the Pliney please...