Port Brewing Hop 15

Beer: Port Brewing Hop 15
Brewery Location: San Marcos, CA
Beer Style: Double IPA
ABV: 10%


My first offering from Port Brewing was the Wipeout IPA which I thought was very tasty, and this is a DIPA from them, so I am pretty excited to give this beer a try. I've been hooked on California IPA's and DIPA's thus far this spring. I liked the artwork on the front of this bottle. It is a squadron of bombers dropping hop bombs into a pint glass. This beer was named as a 15th Anniversary beer and uses 15 types of hops added to the boil every 15 minutes. I split this bottle with my best friend Kevin at his place.

Hop 15 pours a hazy golden deep copper color with a small but dense off-white head with minimal carbonation. It already looks like I am going to enjoy this DIPA. This beer left sheets of lacing for the entire beer. The scent is first dominated by oily hops with scents of candied grapefruit, orange zest, and earthy grassy notes. I can smell the caramel sweet malt coming to life more as the beer warmed a bit. The flavor profile is at first very heavy on the hop bitterness with each drink bringing on tastes of pine, grapefruit, and fresh orange peel. The malt does come into play here, but never quite balances out the hop bitterness with just a slight touch of sweet malt. The mouth feel is smooth and medium bodied with a touch of alcohol in the mouth as well. Drink ability is a also very good, but one bomber was enough for me for the time being.

I think this is another really great beer from Port Brewing. I wouldn't call it by any means my favorite DIPA, but it is well worth seeking out again. If you are a hop-head you should at least try and get your hands on a bottle of this beer.

Cheers!
Matt