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Phil Farrell's picture

Session IPL

March, 2016
Judges Rating: 
88
Aroma: 
22 / 24
Appearance: 
5 / 6
Flavor: 
36 / 40
Mouthfeel: 
8 / 10
Overall Impression: 
17 / 20

This nice-looking pint feature a gold, fairly clear, low, white head with good retention and lace. Lots of pleasant hop aroma jumps out of the glass at me. I smell fresh grapefruit, pine, resin, zest, spice and a bit of tropical fruit. There is a little bit of the dankness many newer hop strains exhibit. Overall, the hop expression dominates the nose in a good way. I do not get much in the way of malt character other a touch of biscuit, but I do get a little bit of fermentation character (fruitiness with a wisp of sulfur). Overall, this beer is very aromatic and pleasant. The hop flavor is a little more homogeneous than the aroma, but it's hop-forward nonetheless. The flavor goes fairly quickly into a dry finish, as you would expect a session beer to do. The second half contains more of a balanced firm bitterness than a pounding big IPA bitterness. The hop flavors linger, the malt supports well, and the aftertaste, while short, is clean and crisp. This isn’t a one-note symphony as there is some biscuit malt supporting the hop play throughout the flavor. A hair below a medium body, but is not in any way thin or watery. Moderate carbonation is enough to cleanse the palate without becoming carbonic or prickly. There is no noticeable alcohol character, which is again consistent with a session ale. Very tasty hop statement for a session beer. Seems very smooth and clean as expected for a lagered beer. The bitterness is not overdone and the lager treatment keeps the beer on point. I could drink a lot of these.