Skagit River Scullers IPA

Brewed by Skagit River Brewing Co.
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Mount Vernon, Washington USA

2008-06-24. Hazy orange ody, huge creamy beige head. (4+) Pleasant aroma of pithy orange and citrus, light resiny hop notes. Similar flavour, sweet orange up front, brief sharp astringent bitterness, touches of leafy resin grow into the finish. (8+) Average plus palate. (3+) Nice. 8/5/8/3/16 - 4.0 Bottle from Mabel’s Seattle trip. <P>Bottle. September 2006. Brewnosers Meeting. Dark orangey amber body with a moderate beige head. Astringent grain aroma, muted hops. Flavour is quite bitterd, with a dry bitter burn in the finish that I found a touch astringent. Long lasting bitter aftertaste. (6+) Average palate. Did not like this as much as the rest of the crowd apparently. Bottle was a couple months old, but this needs a lot more aroma and finishing hops in my opinion. 6/3/7/3/14 - 3.3

22 oz. bottle, from Liquid Solutions. Pours a deep copper-amber color and clear, with a huge fluffy off-white head that leaves thick lace. Sweet gruity malts in the aroma, witha bit of caramel, green apple, floral hops, some pineapple and citrus. Delicious flavors, sweet and slightly caramel, quite fruity, with lots of oarange juice and lots of grapefruit, some pine and spicy notes in the finish as well. Medium to full body and gentle carbonation. Very good IPA and a joy to drink!

Draught at the Parkway Tavern Day of IPAs. *** CASK VERSION ***This is my last IPA to taste today, and my tastebud have been flailed. Pours an opaque orange amber. Medium to full still body. Some fruit and toffee in the taste Lingering resinous finish.

**NOTE: This review applies only to the cask version (so far).**
Draft at the Parkway’s Day of IPAs. Amber, still, headless. Cherry/yeast nose. Sweet malt flavor, loong but gentle bitter finish. Not much going on.
I should note that I’ve had the normally-aspirated version many times and truly liked it a lot more than this; I’ll update my rating when I can. I’m just one to be generally bored with bubble-free casked beers, anyway, so today’s rating shows a fair degree of prejudicial thinking.

Light citrus aroma, maybe a hint of yeast and pine. Deep glowing amber apricot color with white head defaulting to lacing. Seems to start with malt (surprise), following with citrusy hop, and ending with hop confused with the grittiness characteristic of an American brown ale - must be the malt. Finally the malt leaves, and a nice grapefruity bitterness persists. Nice mouthfeel. Really good stuff.

Thanks to Demolayfire for this one. Pours a nice cloudy amber with a ring of foam. This brew sems to get some pretty wide ranges of opinions. The bitterness was there at first sip but this was a very lost child not really knowing which way to turn. Lots of syrup and dsome hops but the flavor was hard for me to detect. Could have been a few different styles vs an IPA.

After making my notes and reading other reviewers, I wonder if I had the same beer as some of them. Poured a clear orangey-brown with a big, rocky tan head you’ll need a shovel to remove. Lots of great lacing left on the glass. Maybe over-chilled, but aroma was all hops: lemon, grapefruit and spruce tips. Nose fits the "Northwest IPA" stereotype to a T. The hop flavors continued to dominate (again, maybe due to over-chilling) with a pronounced bitterness that’s quite appetizing. It must have some nice malt flavors because bitterness and acidity don’t overpower due to some sweetness. I just didn’t get the flavor - it was semi-sweet hop juice all the way. A perfect example of all I can do without in a Northwest beer.

22oz bomber, big malty beer very light citrus piney hop aroma, good flavor balence nice creamy head and great lace all the way to the bottom left a somewhat sweet malty aftertaste would rather have had a bitter bite from the hops.