Terrapin Side Project Hop Shortage Ale

Brewed by Terrapin Beer Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Athens, Georgia USA

650 ml. Clear, orange-copper with a quarter-inch of lasting cream overhead. Crunchy, frosty lacing deposited all over the glass. Earth-spiced caramel, orange and grapefruit aromas are nice. Flavors of dirty pineapple, caramel, resin, grapefruit and toasted nut. Light-medium body is a little too fizzy and watery, but well-dried on the finish.

High drinkability for an IPA. With that being said, this beer is very average. Slightly bitter back end, with some slight citrus. Pretty well balanced IPA. Relatively sharp carbonation.

Bottle shared by Springslicker. Poured orange with a frothy white head that left good lace. The aroma had a mix of orange and malts. The flavor had lots of orange with a good backing of pine and malt. Medium body, smooth carbonation, medium hoppiness throughout. Decent!

Fantastic IPA. Had this while watching the Iggles/Stillers game. I thought this would be a hop-bomb monster beer, but it’s actually a finely crafted and delicious IPA. Great.

Bottle... Post RBSG ’08 O-Town/Vero Beach Throwdown Chapter 8... Clear golden ale with a small, wispy, white head. Great retention. Grains, earthy hops and a notation of black tea compose the aroma. Medium to full-bodied with dull carbonation. Good balance. Black tea and toffee. Finishes grassy, bitter, then dry. Thanks to juiceisloose for providing the bottle!

Pours a clear dark orange color with a small off white head that quickly settles to a thin film. The aroma shows big orange and bitter grapefruit hops with a hint of the toasted caramel malt base. The flavor shows the same with a good amount of bitterness from the citrus and grapefruit hops. The sweet and toasty caramel malt tries to balance things out, but still a good amount of bitterness on the backend. Medium bodied and pretty smooth with good carbonation. This one is easy drinking with good flavor with a slight bitter finish. This is pretty good, but nothing terribly exciting,

Bomber picked up while in Florida. Poured a hazy gold in color with a medium sized off white head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of citrus hops and caramel malt. Mouth feel is a little thin and watery. Flavors of oranges, light pine, citrus hops, and caramel. I don’t know what I was expecting but it didn’t really do it for me.

Coming in fresh from Terrapin Brewing is one of their beers known as a side project. This time around it is an IPA which they have lovingly named Hop Shortage Ale. Now the test is to see how much of a hop shortage she really is, or if it is just a farce.
Her colors are a deep almost coppery orange with tinges of amber poking through. A small soft head forms on the top of her brew, fading into a soft ring around my glass. Minor brussels lace tattoo my glass during multiple quaffs, but not as many as I would have liked to have seen for such an alluded hoppy brew. Hop Shortage’s nose is replete with wet hoppy oils, lemon, freshly cut wet grass, and lavender. Her body is a bit heavy with slick sticky oils with a bit of a resinous finish. Much like her nose, sweet grass and lavender notes in her palate. Not as much hops as I was looking for considering the amount of hops purportedly used in Terrapin’s Hop Shortage Age. Her finish is mild, drying, and with a clean resinous bite.
Overall, not a horrible hopped IPA, but I have had better and more balanced varieties. If it was offered to me again, I would drink it, but overall not a lasting memorable quaffing experience. A shame, really. Hops are beautiful.