Mission IPA

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Mission IPA

• Brewery: Mission Brewing Company (California)

• Style: IPA

• ABV: 6.8%

• IBU: 66

• Pour Color: A hazy golden color with a orange hue.

      The Face poured this one and BAM! IPA DAY reached it's pinnacle! The scent off the glass was fairly strong. The malts had a nice fresh sweet bread scent and the hops gave it fruity grassy scent. The color was a nice see through color with just a slight hop haze. The taste is where you find the IPA! Tastes slightly more bitter then the IBU would indicate. The hops bite hard on every splash. Luckily this mustache bites back! The initial taste in the mouth is the sweet malts. Then it's a variety of grassy and citrus hops. This is one of my favorite IPAs i've ever tasted. Lucky to have found this on IPADAY!
      I'm really glad I left the real thing for last. The mustache wanted to just scarf hops and this one delivered. Bitter and delicious I can't believe how good this was. The best of my five for IPA day by far! Hope you enjoyed the journey through the mustache's holiday! Cheers!

Rating: *****

Grumpy Monk

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Grumpy Monk

• Brewery: Samuel Adams Brewing Company (Massachusetts)

• Style: Belgian IPA

• ABV:5.7%

• IBU:55

• Pour Color: Clear golden color to this one. Light travels through easy

      So the Face got one of the hopology samplers Sam Adams put out. As a hop loving freak you know I was excited. Drowning in piles of hops don't scare me! So the Belgian style was the first I pulled out. The head was fluffy and the color was a golden.  It had a very mellow flavor of the orange peel and clove that you would expect. Really mellow though. The hops also had a slight citrus and pine but also was extremely mellow. This one really didn't strike me as special. This would be a good introduction to Belgian IPA but that's really all.
      This one struck me as neither great Belgian or great IPA and even these two styles mixed this wasn't the best. I've had Belgian IPAs that have blown me away. With this one they didn't go hard enough Belgian so it seems kind of watered down. The hops weren't really that pronounced either. It's a good IPA to get people into it that don't like them.  It really seems IPA, in name only, cause the hops really are on the light side!

Rating: **1/2

Dark Depths

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Dark Depths

• Brewery: Sam Adams Brewing Company (Massachusetts)

• Style: Black IPA (Baltic IPA)

• ABV: 7.6%

• IBU: 55

• Pour Color: A clear red color when held up to the light!

      The pour came out much lighter then most dark IPAs. A head came up quick and sat at the top for awhile. It was easily two fingers high. Smelling the top of this one you get a sweet roasted caramel and almost a grapefruit hop scent. On the sip you get a mix of coffee and caramel malts. The hops come through slightly while in mouth but disappear quickly once swallowed. This is really a dark beer before a IPA and really only hits a pale ale bitterness to me.
      This one to me really seemed to mislead the drinker. If I was trying to get one of my Guinness drinking buddies into a hoppy beer I would go with this one. Much more a dark beer then a IPA really. The hops just are in a sea of malt flavor and aren't enough to get a avid IPA drinker excited. This one I would swim in again but it's not the first one I'm reaching for!

Rating: **1/2

Third Voyage

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Third Voyage

• Brewery: Sam Adams Brewing Company (Massachusetts)

• Style: Imperial IPA

• ABV: 8%

• IBU: 80

• Pour Color: A nice clear amber color.

      This was a nice fluffy headed beer as it poured. Higher then two fingers the head grew quickly. The scent off the top was that of a nice roasted malt and a nice grassy hop. The color came out a nice see through amber. Tasting it, gives you a nice range of flavor. The malts are a sweet caramel flavored. It also got a nice wheat taste. The hops though are the star of this one. Three different cascade hops give it a strange range most wouldn't expect. You get spicy, fruity, and grassy notes from the hops that all mix for bitter echos after you swallow. A really really good double IPA. 
      This one I was looking forward too. I love cascade hops more then most! That is the hop that really gets me curling. This one chooses to use cascade from 3 different places on earth and really uses them well. I found this beer to be ballenced and fairly smooth for a imperial ale. This perhaps is my new favorite from Sam Adams!

Rating: ****1/2

Cali-Belgue IPA

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Cali-Belgue IPA

• Brewery: Stone Brewing Company (California)

• Style: Belgian IPA

• ABV: 6.9%

• IBU:77

• Pour Color: A nice clear golden color.

      This one poured with a finger high head. Not to tall at all. This would sit on the sides of the glass all the way down the beer. The color was a nice golden color that had a nice glow as light passed through. The scent off the top is a strange malty, yeasty, spicy scent. You can tell by the smell that the hops are there too. You also get a slight orange citrus to the bouquet too. The taste is a nice malty yeasty mix like the scent. A almost sweet cereal taste to the malts. That mixed with the yeast give you a nice Belgium wheat beet flavor. Then comes the kick. The IPA portion of this beer is really tasted most after the swallow. You then get a nice echo of that flavor long after a sip. I really like this brew. 
      Starting out, this is a great IPA as just a IPA.  Add in the fact that you get a Belgian kick, that most beer company's would be afraid to go to, makes it even better! Raging Bitch is the only Belgian IPA I've reviewed so far that's on this level. I find it real hard to choose between which I like better my friends!

Rating: ****1/2