Anti-Hero IPA

American IPA | Year-Round | United States

By Dan Preston

Judges Rating: 84
Aroma: 20
Appearance: 6
Flavor: 34
Mouthfeel: 8
Overall Impression: 16

This IPA pours a toasty golden color with great clarity and a thick white head that sticks. The hops aren’t as big as you’d expect, but are still plentiful with notes of pine, resin, grapefruit, passion fruit and peach. The malt is a bit bolder than desired, almost to an English IPA level, which pulls the beer away from the hops even more. There’s some grainy, crackery malt with some toast and a sweet caramel/honey character. Unfortunately, these bolder malt notes carry through into the flavor as well. It starts off a bit sweet with notes of caramel and rich bread crust malt, which flow through the flavor until the fairly dry and bitter finish, despite a fuller body than your normal IPA. The sweetness brings out more of the peach and resin at the end, and the grapefruit fades into the background. This is a good IPA, but less malt character would make it great.