Shipyard Brewers Choice Special Ale Royal IPA (2008)

Brewed by Shipyard Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Portland, Maine USA

Bottle. Average creamy beige head that mostly lasted. Spare display of lacework. Clear amber color. Aroma of mild hoppy notes, grapefruit, pine, citrus. Some underlying fruity and malty sweetness but mainly dominated by the hoppy notes. Medium bodied with an average carbonation and dry texture. Moderated bitter flavor with light sweetness. Dry and bitter hoppy finish.

picked up this bottle on vacation. tan color, not too floral but a big dry hop taste. very nice bitter finish, some lacing

Bottle. Clear orange coloured with a medium sized off white ehad. Sweet and spicy aroma of hops and grape fruits. Flavour of fruits, hops and grape fruits with notes of grass. Dry hoppy finish.

12 fl oz bottle. Pours clear and orange with a lacing white head. Mild spiced and hoppy aroma. Flavour is hoppy with an initial spice note and followed by a mild fruity note. Goes into a distinct spice hops finish. Dry and spiced.

12 fl oz bottle, speed re-rate at Papsoes tasting - same score and similar notes. Pours clear and golden orange with a lacing white head. Mild spiced and dry malt aroma, light cardboardish. Flavour is bitter and dry, holds a vague malt base clearly outconquored by the dry and bitter hops flavours. Ends quite dry.

Bottle. Pours an amber colour with an off-white head. Aroma is some refreshing hops together with some equally refreshing fruity maltiness with large doses of buttery fudge. Flavour is buttery and malty with notes of buttery fude, caramel and some hops. Not very bitter. Very drinkable. A "restrained" IPA (that is restrained in a good way). Nice to have an american IPA that is not a cascade bomb, but instead is more of a brittish style. (However, I did miss some of the "umph" that some of the american style IPAs bring to the table).

Bottled, BB 09/08. Poured clear light-medium orange with a well-retained cap of creamy off-white head.. left sticky lacing as it descended. The aroma picked up an array of drier, grassier, and less-interesting hoppage with a faint dose of darker fruit and caramel.. not bad. The flavor had redder fruits and caramel supporting dry fruity and grassy bitterness.. the same fruit and caramel on the finish. Medium-bodied and dry on the palate.. focused more on the maltage than the hops, which was a negative. No major flaws noticable, but it was rather boring and under-hopped.

Bottle. A good IPA, I think. Has a clear amber body. Off-white head. Aroma is from apples, hops, nuts, butter and malt. Flavor has a characteristic nutty profile. Little malty and some hops. Should have more hops. Little woody flavor. Dry aftertaste.

Bottle. Nice fruity and caramelly european aroma with an american twist. Pours hazy orange with thin head. Fres sweet lemon and egg nogg sweetness. Strawberries and raspberry. Not unlike Fullers. Medium body with caramely sweetness upfront develops into a fruit marmalade bitterness. This is much more english than american, yet the citrus is there. It almost fools you to be a very special bitter, but then the alcohol and spicy hoppiness steps forward an tell you it’s an IPA. Nice!