Smuttynose IPA

Brewed by Smuttynose Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

Pours hazy orange with a nice white head and a ton of floaties. Spicey hop aroma. Flavor is straight hops. Average IPA.

Draught at the Royal Oak, Brooklyn, New York. A good, well-balanced beer with aromas of citrus and hops. The flavours were very earthy of grass, soil and oak. Very nice.

Wasn’t impressed at all with this IPA. It falls into the typical IPA trap of being overhopped, with nothing else to support it so it just ends up tasting bland, but with that stinging bitterness. It poured out with a color like a Budweiser or something, with a significant head but really thin and it dissipated quickly. The mouthfeel was too sharply carbonated. Overall I’d say the score of 94 it has on this site is a gross overrating.

Draught at the Royal Oak, Brooklyn, New York. This was served too cold, and from a keg, but it’s a good IPA nevertheless. There was a quality to the aroma which reminded me of south-east Asian spice. The flavour is dominated by grassy hops and grapefruit. I enjoyed it.

12oz bottle. Very hoppy on the nose. Lots and lots of earthy, grassy, green hops. Some citrus rind hiding back there; sweeter malt as well, but this one is rather intense. Pours a bright clear orange with a very thin white head. Aggressively hopped on the palate. More fruit shows through on the tongue than on the nose. There’s quite a bit of a woody and floral component to the hops. Achieves uniqueness through those qualities. I could use just a tad more malt, though. Medium bodied with a very long, dry, earthy finish. Thanks Eugene!

Orange-gold pour with a thick white head. Lots of little particles floating around in it. Intense citrus hops on the aroma. Some yeast and malt underneath. Some earthy funk tones as well. Very hoppy taste. Bitter with almost no sweetness. Slight fruit and yeast-citrus and berries- on the aftertaste. Lots and lots of and lots of hop flavor. A bit much for me - tend to enjoy a bit more sweetness to it. Good carbonation, but a bit watery.

Bottle, courtesy illidurit. Pours a cloudy, murky mango color, with a fluffy white head, leaving a lot of sticky soapy lacing. Acidic bitter hops bite the nose, with a pleasant floral aroma to follow. Citrus comes through loud here. Sudsy citrus flavors, with earthy tones of wheat. Slight caramel, too. Malt is fairly prominent in this American-style IPA. Medium-bodied. Very refreshing and drinkable. Bitter finish satisfies.

Re-rate 4/24/09. This is a beer I enjoyed many many times (draft & bottle) in my early rating days while living in NH. It was really my go to beer at times, one that never let down. Haven’t had it for a couple of years so glad to see it again. Pours a hazy orange color with a moderate sized off-white head that fades but still leaves some nice lacing. The aroma isn’t all that strong but a nice scent with grapefruit hops, some pine and malt. Flavors consist of orange peel, juicy grapefruit hoppy punch, and a dash of lemon. I thought more malt showed in the aroma versus flavor but it’s certainly there and noticed. Sharp bitter finish that’s dry as well. Sometimes there’s a beer you liked way back in the day but when you re-visit it’s just not the same anymore. Not the case here. While this isn’t my favorite IPA it is flat out solid from an underrated brewer. Original comments: 10/7/04. Starting to really develop a taste for this beer. I’ve sampled it in the bottle and on draft. Pours a foggy golden color with good amounts of head and lacing on the glass. Grapefruit hoppy aroma. A strong grapefruit hoppy taste to it, slightly sweet, with a bitter, slightly sour finish. The more I drink this the more I like it. I recently drank this, then followed it up with another IPA I thought was as good (Harpoon). No way... this is much better.