Thomas Hooker Hop Meadow IPA

Brewed by Thomas Hooker Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Bloomfield, Connecticut USA

The color is a super dark orange, almost red. Bubbly light brown head; disappears quickly. Beer sits still and stagnant. Looks hefty. Malty first sniff, with roasted caramel smells like a mild, sweetish amber. A flowery hop, hints of pine. Decent, more an English than an American IPA. More malty than hoppy, but nice. A nice complex taste. Roasted caramel and toffee in the malt. The hops are an accent only, but a bitter one. The flavors are strong, but balanced. Unlike many IPAs, due to its balance. Like an amber with hops almost. The hops do kick up a notch as it warms up. The feel is thick and creamy, almost like a porter. Feels substantial and "English." It’s a very nice one-off. Big and strong-flavored.

Location: 12 oz bottle from New Beer, 10/8/09

Aroma: A sweet nose, with brown sugar, caramel, sweet fruitiness, and honey mostly, and bit of floral/citrus hops in there too
Appearance: Pours a dark and cloudy reddish-copper color with a medium, lasting, off-white head and some lace
Flavor: Pretty sweet up-front, but the hop backing comes out a touch more then in the nose, ultimately though: it’s quite sweet
Palate:A smooth and creamy mouthfeel, quite sugary feel as well, low in carbonation, and a decent amount of body
Overall Impression: Apparently this is my first rating from Connecticut. Anyway... My first reaction is that it just didn’t come off as an IPA, but ultimately it began to grown on me as I sipped on it a bit more. It is a little unusual. In the end I found it to be a drinkable, though perhaps miss-labeled, brew.

Bottle. The color is extremely dark for an IPA, cloudy and copper to brown in hue. A small head of bubbly, khaki colored foam settles to a thin film with a pronounced ring. Thin, tattered ribbons of lacing mark the glass. The aroma is mostly sweet, showing brown sugar malts, fruity raisin, and orange blossom honey, alongside a light dose of floral and citrus hops. Flavors follow suit, brown sugar malt and stewed dark fruit dominating a light citrus hop bitterness. I can’t get over how prominent the raisin and fig are in this brew. Are they really shooting for an IPA here, or some sort of Belgian brown hybrid? Medium-plus in substance and sugary in the mouth, the palate drinks heavier than it should. Not a good IPA, or whatever it is they call this.

Copper-amber-gold colour. decent head, lots of lacing. Nose is hoppy, floral, and sugar-sweet. Taste is candied and rather artificial. It’s like a flavoured brew at first. I didn’t know they made hop-schnapps. Well, it’s redeemed a bit with a heavy grapefruit like bitterness that comes about. Not bad. The two don’t really mend well together but I wouldn’t give it they "yek" face...nor the Oh-Face. lol

12 ounce bottle split in snifter. Orange with quickly disappearing head. Mild spicy hop and caramel aroma. Toasted caramel nuts fruit and woody hop medium bitter finish. Medium body. On the bottle it says, "A hophead’s favorite brew." Not sure which hophead they were thinking about. Not fresh either.

Thanks to someone or another for this beer. Pours rusty reddish brown with a medium offwhite head. Aroma of grapefruit, plants, wood, caramel, brown sugar, this beer is decidely "Darker" in character as well as color. Tastes of caramel, grapefruit, toast, bitter orange, brown sugar, and wood, with a piny burnt wood sensation on the throat. Finishes like sweetened grapefruit with a bitter citrus and toast aftertaste. Creamy, medium bodied, soft carbonation. Pretty nice!

12oz bottle. Dark color and clear, head disappears quickly. Aroma is hoppy, of course, but there’s also an appealing roasted quality and a hint of apricot (or some fruit I can’t quite name). The smell makes me want to dive right in. Bitter is first and lingers at the end. Very smooth to drink, it slides over my tongue. There’s some different flavor, maybe black tea, that I get every couple mouthfuls. Didn’t notice how strong it was until I stood up! Yay beer!

pours a clear copper with a small beige head. aroma is carmal, toffee, citrusy hops, bread. flavor is grapefruit, toast, and toffee. slightly creamy mouthfeel. some booze notes come in as it warms. not a bad beer.