Boulder Beer's Cold Hop

Beer: Boulder Beer's Cold Hop
Brewery Location: Boulder, CO
Beer Style: English IPA
Serving Style: Bomber
ABV: 6.5%


I have been trying to drink this for a while now. I helped my best friend move from his apartment about a month ago, and he was kind enough to know what I will work for: GOOD BEER! That's pretty much an open invitation to everyone out there. You need some muscle to help you move I will work for beer.

I've only had one other beer from Boulder Beer and that's the Mojo IPA. That is a really nice beer from them if you like IPA's. According to the bottle this beer: "We've expanded on Charlie Papazian's.....favorite recipes, gave it out own twist, and we're over the moon with the result."
(My non-beer geek friends Charlie Papazian wrote the bible for home brewers. It is called The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, and if you want to brew your own beer it is a must to own.)

I was very excited to give this a whirl. I really do love English beers deep down, but since I've become a serious hophead most just don't live up to what I am after. I would soon find out this is exactly what I have been searching for.

This pours a clear orange/amber hue with a big active off-white head that collapsed very quickly and left a good sheet of lacing until the end of the beer. I poured with a non-aggressive pour and it was a solid three fingers of head. Decent lacing along the glass as well. The smell is a very vibrant floral nose of citrus, grapefruit, pine, and sweet oranges and a slight touch of bready malt. This reminds of me a well balanced American IPA at this point. The taste follows the nose very nicely. Sweet toffee is the first flavor to me before a nice hop bitterness floods my taste buds. I get a nice shot of bready malt aftertaste on the back of my palate. This is so very well balanced with the malt and hop flavoring sharing their roles as it should be. This beer provides the hop bite I am looking for in a well made and well balanced beer. The mouthfeel is very crisp and clean with a medium finish and overall very satisfying. The drinkability is extremely high for me. It's a little high on alcohol content, but I would make a session out of this.

Fantastic effort from Boulder Beer on this. It's on a limited availability. I did a search for it, but I couldn't find out how often they actually brew this beer. It's on a "rotating release" according to the sites I checked. I can't even find this beer on Boulder's website. This beer delivered exactly what I wanted. I got a great hop bite, but still tasted the other flavors that should be in a well built beer. I will gladly return to this beer when given the chance.

4.25 out of 5.
Cheers!
Matt