Santa Cruz Mountain IPA

Brewed by Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Santa Cruz, California USA

Let me first start by saying I knew this would be rated under a 3 for being so different. Thanks MikeTD. Golden orange pour, small white head. Aroma of orange and lemon. Flavor is citrus hops, caramel and biscuits. Very leafy bitterness and a big belgian yeast sourness. Lots of belgian funk and more sour yeast note. A Belgian IPA? or as if JP made an IPA.

A very nice beer. Pours nice. The beer is live so the yeast still is growing. I had mine about a month and had a lot of sedement, which i like. The beer is golden and with a nice head. Very hoppy. A great IPA.

Thanks to droopy49 for sending this one! The pour produces a clear gold body that supports a huge, creamy off-white head. Fruity aroma with light, flowery hops. Moderately bitter, with just enough underlying malt to support this one nicely. Some spicyness suggestive of cinnamon toast. It looks like my rating is going against teh grain here. Maybe my bottle went good?

Thanks to jah noth for this. Pours semi-hazy deep gold with a huge white head and tons of visible floaties. The head was gargantuan, and formed awesome unorthodox shapes, much like La Chouffe Hobbelein. The aroma was orange marmalady, bready, with apricot, caramel malt, and some spicy and floral notes. The taste is on the sweet side, with notes of caramel malt, honey, apricot, peach, and canteloupe dipped in ground black pepper, plus some spicy, floral, Belgian yeasty notes in the flavor. The hops take a backseat to the spicy, floral, fruity, and bready malt notes in this, and the style is extremely unique.

22oz bottle poured a clear golden color with a small white head that faded quickly. Aromas of citrus hops and some light caramel malts. Taste had a nice bitterness with a big dry hoppy finish. Didn’t think that should be rated so low, but maybe I got a good fresh batch.

Aroma of floral hop with a bit of citrus, backed by a little caramel. Hazy ripe apricot color with a white head that quickly filmed. Starts with floral hop and ripe stone fruit flavors, maybe a citrus bite. Medium body that thins a bit as the moderate carbonation leaves. Overall it’s very good, but there is a earthiness, a dark fruit aspect, that’s unusual. The finish is a bit complex. Really interesting, and quite tasty after one’s initial prejudices are set aside. After awhile I wonder whether there is a tobacco note in there.

Hazy gold, did not mount much of a head. Aroma is somewhat sweet but dominated by floral hops. Flavor is sweet, residual sugar sweet, very earthy hops flavor comes next with a very bitter finish. Pretty strong for a single IPA, but I did finish the 22 oz bottle. In the end I liked it but the balance could certainly be better.

Thin aroma. First sip is aggressive raw hops that are so strong it makes the rest of the beer seem like water in the background. With successive sips a strong malt sweetness rises up to match the hops. The malt and the hops jostle back and forth in your mouth in a manner that reminds me of Scarlett Fire. Grapefruit character of the hops comes through in the finish.