Thomas Hooker Hop Meadow IPA

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

(22oz. bottle) Pours a deep amber with a moderate beige head. Aroma of toasted malt, nuts, caramel, pine, and citris. Flavor of toasted malt, caramel, and mild hops. Nice balance. Bitter finish.

Bomber: Outstanding! The appearance is much darker than you normal IPA. A thick fluffy and long lasting head rests atop. Aroma is floral and malty. Flavor is extremly floral. Tastes like a Hawaiian Lei. Some piney flavors as well as a nice malt balance. Quite scruptious.

bomber. deep orange with a medium long lasting off white head. Aroma: big on citrus and malts, taste is the same, nice full bodied ipa, citrus and piney hops dominate with a good amount of malty sweetness and a long lasting medium bitter finish.

[thanks to BEERYUM for this bottle!] Deep coppery red color with a tan head. Nice veil on top after the head falls. Aromas are full of crystal malts that hint at cookies or brownies and some citrusy hops. Creamy, smooth, and rich on the palate. Jazzy flavors with a solid malty backbone, matched with tangy, citrusy hop bitterness. Lingering hoppiness (tangerines? lemons?) . Nice, chewy IPA. Thanks Dave!

Thanks to jjpm74 for this one! Coppery in color, with a wet green hop aroma, coupled with some malts and citrus, and apricots, pears, and tangerine. The palate is medium heft and lively, with a greater fruity hop coupled with more citrus and tropical fruit as it finishes. This one definitely has a West Coast hop-type bill.

Pours dark amber into a shaker. Microbubble head gradually recedes with some lacing. Grapefruit and spruce aromas. Upfront creamy and full caramel with slightly metallic flavors. Long bitter grapefruit finish. Nice, but I don’t like the metallic.

Via trade from SpringsLicker , thanks Jay! 22oz bottle pours a dark copper color with a nice thick head. Good hop aroma with notes of pine and citrus. Great hop flavor with a crisp somewhat dry malt and hop aftertaste. A hophead’s delight indeed. After two hearted, probably the best non-west coast IPA I have had.

(22 oz bottle: Obtained 29-Apr-06 in trade with jjpm74, thanks John!) This stuff just looks like it’s pouring thick and heavy, so I’m immediately intrigued and my expectations are building. The very balanced nose is surprisingly hoppy and piney, but also, it’s sweet and malty, kind of tea-like, and there’s an immediate vegetal quality too, so this actually smells like it could be a West Coast brew if I didn’t know better. Exquisite balance in the flavor as well, with the strongly piney and bitter hops complementing the sweet, earthy, grainy maltiness. Lingering resiny bitterness is prolonged and unrelenting, and soon just coats my entire mouth with bitter hops until the next sip and maintains its grip for the duration of the session. Medium-full in body, so the pour didn’t lie. Crisp on the palate and well carbonated. Deep ruddy-amber in color with nearly perfect clarity. Off-white head The extensive lacing looks like it was dabbed on the glass with a course sponge. Damn, I was not prepared for an IPA like this from the East Coast. I’m very impressed with this effort. Even compared to the hop bombs around San Diego, this is a wonderfully flavorful and balanced IPA that truly deserved accolades, regardless of where it’s from. I have some more IPAs to try, but there’s no point in drinking any others tonight, the hops in this beer has so totally taken over my palate, I’ll need to wait until tomorrow and start fresh. Awesome job with this beer, guys, and this is coming from a San Diegan!