Thomas Hooker Hop Meadow IPA

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

Bottle Pours a clear deep redish amber witha huge sandy colored head that slowly recedes leaving lots of sticky web-like lacing. Aroma is not a very strong hop bitterness, more woody and grassy. Flavor is very bitter. Not in a particularly flavorfull way. Just bitter, sharp and harsh. The malt profile is eclipsed by the astringnet bite. Thank you Santa.

22 Oz bottle, courtesy of Jimbowood. Smells good, with a nice dark amber appearance. Pretty nice upon first taste, yet the alcohol presence is pretty strong. Not a bad IPA, but certainly not one of the better ones I have had. Suffers from too much malt, and the alcohol is not well hidden. Average.

22oz bottle. Green’s on Ponce. OMG! beautifully perfect cascading head with a equally showful lace. Brown in color, a little differently than expected. Strong hop aroma. Stronger on the Palate!!! WOW. West Coast all the way. Heavy bodied for an IPA. Excellent.

Pours out a brown color with a nice white head. I was a little suprised at how dark this IPA was. Aroma was nice and hoppy, but the flavor was missing somehting. I was a little disappointed in this brew.

Bottle from Tom (oldgrowth) Thanks! Pours out a dark brown color with a small yellow head that goes till the end. Smells hoppy and not unlike the smell of a beer from the west coast. Taste is simple, fairly balanced, slightly hoppy, and pleasing. Not bad, unfortunately we compared it to Stone IPA and it was rather lacking in that aspect, but it was still damn nice. Thanks!

A deep copper colored body that is topped by a sticky, tall white head. Big piney aroma with some citrus. Big hops with plenty of malt to hold it all together. Good full mouthfeel.

22 oz bottle provided by my buddy Scott. Hazy brown caramel color with minimal head. Great caramel aroma (strong, you could smell it from across the room) with some floral hoppy hints. The flavor, as with the aroma, has a solid malt caramel body that gives it an initial sweetness. Unfortunately this is where my enjoyment stops. The flavor moves quickly into a very strong earthy-spicy-nut shell hop dominated flavor that I just don’t care for. It’s too overpowering. Body starts creamy but becomes dry.

22 oz bottle, snifter. Surprisingly dark for an IPA coming in at a deep mahagony hue with a lasting and creamy tan head. Interesting. The aroma is both assertively malty and hoppy from the start. Rich toffee and caramel blend into warm, toasted dark bread all of which seem to soften the usually citrus and pine impact of big American hops. Truly, the hops come across with a great deal of floral presence followed by oranges and a light pine and grapefruit contribution. I also get the feeling of warm cream sherry--in the alcohol sense, not oxidation. Too a lesser degree than everything else there are some peach, butterscotch, brown sugar and roasted malt notes. As the beer warms, an unmistakable tea aroma emerges--something I constantly relate to English IPAs. The flavor is full of gooey caramel up front, with a very light acidity and moderate floral hop bitterness. The finish dries out significantly and, unfortunately, reveals a good deal of harsh, grapefruit and resin hop bitterness. Hops this pungent simply don’t work well with this much maltiness for me. It’s like putting maple syrup on a grapefruit and sticking that on a pine twig. That’s not to say this beer is overly bitter (it’s not) the flavors just clash too much for my tastes. The mouthfeel is enjoyable though, something T. Hooker seems to be adept at. Very creamy and with the proper wetness up front and dryness at the finish. Never feels too big or small for the flavors. Carbonation is spot on as well, just enough to keep everything moving but never disturbing. ...Make it with Fuggles and EKGs...please?