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Sal Mortillaro II's picture

Lucky U IPA

October, 2016
Judges Rating: 
81
Aroma: 
19 / 24
Appearance: 
6 / 6
Flavor: 
31 / 40
Mouthfeel: 
10 / 10
Overall Impression: 
15 / 20

This Nitro IPA pours a deep gold color with a slightly hazy clarity.  A beautiful creamy, mousse-like white head is everlasting and persists during the entire beer leaving a lovely lacing on the glass.  The aroma has a low malt character that is sublime and general at first but has hints of graininess and caramel as the beer warms.  No hop aroma is distinguishable in the beer and very low fruity esters blend with the malt but are also general in character.  This beer has a very slight tinny, metallic like character in the aroma I have ran across in other Nitro canned beers (I do not fault this as it seems to be consistent across all canned Nitro beers I have encountered).  The flavor consists of low bready malt sweetness with a touch of toffee, is clean in character with a moderate-high hop bitterness with a very low spicy flavor from the hops.  Low general fruity esters are present in the middle of the flavor profile.  Balance is towards the hop bitterness and finishes moderately dry.  The beer has a medium-thin bodied with a gentle carbonation.  The carbonation bubbles feel very fine in the mouth and add a lovely creaminess typical of a Nitro beer.  Overall, this beer misses the mark on hop aroma and hop flavor intensities for falling in line as a typical IPA; the flavor profile falls more in line with an Ordinary English Bitter.  Regardless, this beer is easily drinkable despite it’s muted approach towards the IPA style.