aspidites (1274), manteca, California, USA Nov 22, 2007 Herbal and grassy hop nose with more malt presence than I would expect. Ipa hell no, mildly malt forward on the palate with little hop presence. GG (1612), NorCal, California, USA Apr 2, 2007 My first beer from these guys in years. The barley wine wasn’t on tap, so I went with their IPA. Aroma was really subdued with a light piney hop character, small malts and little else to note. Appearance was a nice deep orange color with a white one-finger head. Mouthfeel was slight harsh. Flavor was malt dominant with some piney hops coming out now and again. I’ve had IPA’s much worse, but it still was lacking. Perhaps if they were shooting for an English IPA maybe, but with a name Napa Valley IPA that screams West Coast to me, and if it’s gonna be WC IPA then it’d better be good. This one wasn’t bad, just forgettable.
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