Summit India Pale Ale

Brewed by Summit Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
St. Paul, Minnesota USA

Pours a clear deep golden color with a little white head. Spotty lacing. Aroma has citrus notes, piney hops, and light caramel. Tastes of the piney hops, citrus notes, and the light sweetness of caramel malts. No lingering aftertaste.

pour thick, carmelly, apricotty. light tan quickly disipating head. very fruity aroma, perhaps reminicent of iced tea with lemon. the taste is also too close to lemon ice tea, and the slight bitterness in the finish is not enough to redeem this brew. i found that if you inhale while you drink you maximize your enjoyment. god knows what that means.

I am a sucker for hops. the beer is not as well balanced as other truly great IPA’s, but this is a great beer for the money. THe hops flavor can be a little overwhelming and out of balance, but is great, if not sublime, with a good and greasy pizza. yum!

2/20/08. Calling this an IPA would be a stretch, but it’s still a solid, drinkable beer nonetheless. Aroma lacks hops and instead shows caramel and toffee sweetness. Some hop bitterness in the taste, but still that much, and not really any hop flavoring to speak of. What is there is the aforementioned caramel and toffee sweetness with some nuttiness making this a surprisingly decent beer. Very drinkable. 6/3/7/4/13-3.3 12/23/09. Didn’t remember I’d had this before. Not dry enough, could use water adjust, probably recipe adjustment as well. Has that soap nutty hop character a la jai alai and a few other ipas. 6/3/7/3/13-3.2

Summit IPA is not what I would consider an IPA. Starting with the color, it has more of a darker reddish-brown color that is much darker then typical IPA’s. The smell, which should be bursting with hop goodness is lacking. And speaking of hops, they are very subtle with hints of earthy tones and slight citrus notes but all of it plays second fiddle to the malt. The malt is a little watery with hints of roasted and English flavoring. I don’t know what the IBU’s but it doesn’t seem much. Personally I like IPA’s with hops and Summit is lacking with this.\

Pours a pretty standard reddish amber hue, with a nice thing white head. The aroma is grassy hops with some sweet malt notes. The taste is pretty similar - the hops are more subdued than most IPAs I’ve tried, more grassy and floral that piny or citrusy. The malt backbone isn’t bad, but fails to distinguish itself with out some aggressive hops to spice the beer up. Decent, drinkable brew, but not the best IPA around.

It’s a very malty aroma, but with a mild undercurrent of hops. The appearance is a nice caramel with decent head retention. The hops do come through a little in the flavor as the beer warms up, and the palate has a nice bubbly carbonation. It’s a rather mediocre IPA, but not bad.

June 2006 - Beer poured with moderate heat, little lacing, but beautiful dark amber color, which was a bit odd for an IPA. The flavor was complex for an IPA...sweet citrus (not overly grapefruity, more orangey), other darker fruits, a definite caramel presence and a touch of pine. The hop bitterness was mild for the style but enjoyable. I bought this just to have a MN beer, but this was really nice.