Beer: Terrapin Brewing Hop Shortage Ale
Brewery Location: Athens, GA
Beer Style: American IPA
ABV: 6.2%
I've been back to beer trading recently after a nice break from it. I've had some beer from Terrapin, but I've been wanting to give this beer a chance. Despite the name of the beer, according to the bottle they wanted to make a hop-bomb during the hop shortage we are currently in.
This beer pours a clear golden/orange hue with two fingers worth of fluffy white head that dissipated very quickly and left minimal lacing on my pint glass. I get a pretty good aroma of this beer as I am pouring it. The nose is full of citrus fruit being heavy on the orange scents, but the heaviest scents lean towards sweet and bready malt. I wasn't expecting that out of the nose on this IPA. The flavor profile is also strange to me for an IPA. I do get citrus and pine on the palate, but I get more sweet malt upfront with a moderate bitter finish. All of the flavors are there, but they are not really all that prominent. I am not getting much of a hop bite over the malt sweetness. It is not cloyingly sweet, but just sweeter than most IPAs I've drank. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, but finishes a little watery. The drinkability is decent enough for this beer, and would enjoyed if you like your IPAs on the sweet side.
Overall, this beer was a miss for me. The malt sweetness was heavier than I personally enjoy, and I would have liked to see some more body on the mouthfeel. This wasn't really the hop-bomb that the bottle said it was going to be.
Cheers!
Matt
4 comments:
How old was this beer? Perhaps it's been sitting for awhile.
It is pretty fresh I think. The beer hasn't been available for that long I don't think.
That's something I've noticed with some of these massively hopped beers: the tendency to shoot for balance can sometimes miss. Overly sugary malt can be too much when paired with a wall of palate-coating hops.
I've come to detest these beers, but really appreciate the ones that don't go too crazy. Steelhead Double IPA is, in my opinion, an example of a balanced Double IPA that doesn't beat you over the head with sweetness.
I dig Terrapin, but a couple of their beers remind me of your very description, and I've yet to try the Hop Shortage Ale. Not a good sign.
Glad to have you back and trading.. This blog definitely gets me out to the store ha ha.
You are a beer explorer of the highest order.
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