Wild Goose India Pale Ale

Brewed by Wild Goose LLC (Flying Dog)
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Frederick, Maryland USA

Slightly cloudy gold pour with a thin white head. Hoppy aroma with some grapefruit and flowery notes. Flavor was pretty hoppy and bitter. Nice earthy malts to back it up. Finish is bitter with flowery hops... very crisp. I drink a lot of IPA’s and if this were more accessible for me, I could see myself drinking more of it... pretty good.

Hazy gold with a foamy white head. Had a decent creaminess to it. Malts: Only a pinch of caramel sweetness along with some toast. Although, curiously enough, it had a stickiness factor. Hops: Rich and grassy, with light background aromas of flowers. Malt sweetness was light and the hop bitterness was relatively faint, but there seemed to be a lot going on in the middle. That said, balance was real nice. Overall, I thought it was tasty and enjoyable. Placed against comparables, IMO, it seemed more like a boldish American PA than an American IPA.

I like IPA’s. This is a typical IPA. Smells hoppy, not overwhelming. Looks good, gold, mild head, substantial lacing. Regular bitterness, not super hoppy, still dry though. Goes down easy, no negatives. Beer of the month club.

12 oz. bottle. Gold orange body with a thin white head. Aroma of lemons and grapefruit. Flavor was hoppy, somewhat earthy with a bit of citrus. A drinkable IPA.

Pours gold with little head. Aroma is mild flowery hops. Swallow is very smooth, but taste is very mellow for an IPA. Aftertaste is slightly bitter. This beer is easy to drink, but is not very bold.

Aroma is mostly fruity and only mildly hoppy. Transparent golden/yellow with a very handsome two finger thick white head that is fairly creamy and lasting. Fore is sweet and malty with light floral notes. Very light hops (for the style) in the middle. Finish is dry and malty though the aftertaste leaves a sort of floral soapy taste. Decent lacing as you drink. It’s very light feeling and refreshing which is not how I think of IPA’s.

09-Feb-06 (12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with hopscotch on 28-Jan-06, thanks Eric!) How’s about another go with this beer. My previous sample was just strange, all fruity and floral, but not hoppy or malty. But now we’re talkin’, this is how I remember Wild Goose IPA to be when it was a go-to, "six-pack" beer for me during my years in DC. Clean, crisp and bright, the moderately bitter hops reign from sip to finish, with a lightly sweet and grainy malt providing the medium-bodied base. Nothing at all unusual or out of the ordinary, just your standard East Coast IPA. Hops is less prominent in the nose, so the grainy malt aroma gets most of the spotlight here. Pale golden to dark straw in color with perfect clarity and a small, off-white head that leaves streaks of lace on the glass as it settles to a ring. When I think of an average-tasting beer, this is what comes to mind. Nothing great, nothing offensive, just decent, competently made, a beer for quaffing.

16-Mar-05 (12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with jasonp, thanks Jason!) Uh okay, this is a pretty bizarre IPA, both in the flavor and nose. It smells like fermenting grapes, very sweet, very fruity, alcoholic, but also very floral with a bright, orange citrus aroma. It doesn’t smell malty or hoppy at all. Very odd, but not necessarily bad, it’s just taken my by surprise and I have to get over the initial shock. The flavor is also extremely fruity (peach, melon, orange citrus), floral and sweet. There a bit of mild bitterness in the background, and I can’t begin to taste any maltiness in this beer. Their claim that it’s a "crisp, clean ale with a long, hoppy finish" doesn’t begin to match up with what I’m tasting. Clean and crisp? Not even remotely. Light golden color shows a bit of haziness. Off-white head is very lively and bubbly during the pour, but the head shows nice retention and patchy lacing. Without a doubt, this bottle of Wild Goose IPA is a very non-traditional IPA with some unusual characteristics, and I have to wonder if this is what it’s supposed to taste like. I drank this with some frequency when I lived in DC years ago, but that was when the Wild Goose brewery in Cambridge was still in existance. I simply don’t recall this beer being so fruity, floral and sweet. Decent stuff, just different.

Not much of an Ipa. Not much of an aroma, slight hoppy sweet flavor, kinda floral. Very average overall.