pFriem Golden IPA

pFriem Golden IPA by pFriem Family Brewers was evaluated as BJCP2015 style 21A American IPA. Poured slightly hazy deep straw with a medium head of small and medium-white bubbles that slowly fades to a 1-finger head, but regenerates when swirled. The aroma is light, grainy, bready malt with low bread crust notes. The hops in the aroma are quite perfumy and fruity with notes of chamomile, ripe apricot, papaya, honeydew and peach — more to the New England direction of an IPA than West Coast. The first taste is grainy with ripe peach, chamomile, black pepper, lemon and light grassy notes. As the beer warms up, there are more citrusy (grapefruit zest, lime zest) and tropical papaya with hints of honeydew. Moderately bitter, there is a fairly dry and crisp lingering finish of grassy, pine, peach and chamomile. Very complex hop notes in flavor and aroma, but they play well together. Tastes like some of the newer hops coming out of Oregon and Washington (Willamette and Yakima regions). With all that’s going on in this beer hopwise, this was a tough food pairing, but I think this beer would work really well with mustard-based Carolina BBQ sauce on beef brisket.