Review 165: New Holland Michigan Hatter

Review 165

6/9/13

New Holland Michigan Hatter: ?% abv

Background: Well, we’ve been doing great on not having information for our reviews. This would fall into that realm, because we don’t have a clue what the abv on this beer is. Now, our friendly neighbors at New Holland are very much a hit or miss brewery, producing some really kickass beers. On the other end of the spectrum, it would be safe to say they have made some pretty disappointing beers as well. We would like to word it differently, but we don’t sugarcoat any of this. So imagine where that puts this beer…The Michigan Hatter, sits in the Hatter range as an IPA which contains exclusively Michigan Cascade hops. Sounds like a novel idea from a drinker’s perspective, right? Let’s find out.

Nose: The nose starts off with a sense of sweetness, complemented by an obvious hoppiness. There are fruity notes of baked plantain, pears and cantaloupe. There is a note of vanilla, some honeysuckle floral notes and some pine-like notes, probably derived from the hops. There is an acidic note of lemon that comes through, rather sweet and not terribly tart. After letting the beer open up, there is a note of wheat that comes through in the undertones of the aromas.

Arrival: The arrival to this beer is pretty eventless, so far as we can tell. It can almost be depicted as watery, which a light hops influence. It has a sort of bitter, quinine soda-water type flavor to it.

Body: There is a relatively short body, with suggestions of wheat, hops, pine and pear. It still has an extremely light mouth-feel with hardly much flavor.

Finish: The finish is rather short, which sums up the experience of the entire beer. The finish is powerfully grainy with yeast and wheat taking over. There is still some pine and hoppiness coming through.

Final Comments:  So, halfway through this review, we kind of gave up on any sort of thorough depiction of this thing. The reason being is we didn’t at all like this. The complexity, after the nose, was lost upon us and replaced with sheer blandness, and even so much as poor flavor. This is not an expensive beer, which is good considering how much we didn’t drink of it. The best description we could produce for this beer is hops-flavored soda water. It sits right above some of those well-beloved lager friends our macrobreweries are literally spewing out, minus the maltiness that remains present in a lager. Nothing good to say about this one. Sorry.

Why you’d buy it:.You wouldn’t.

Why you wouldn’t:  Everything.

Score: 5.0/10

Review 164: Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

Review 164

6/5/13

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA: 15-20% abv

Background: Dogfish Head, a prolific microbrewery that has done a great job making beers, and making them memorable. This beer stands as no exception to the rule. You might notice a peculiar “typo” on the header of this review. That is not a typo; we aren’t quite sure what this batch of 120 Minute IPA is in terms of abv, but rumor has it that it sits around 18% abv, making it the highest alcohol content beer we’ve ever tried. What is the 120 minute about then? The beer is boiled for 120 minutes while being hopped with high-alpha American hops, whatever that means. They claim that this is the ultimate beer for hopheads, and we were pretty compelled by such a claim. Don’t be intimidated though, it isn’t what you’d think it to be.

Nose: Well, since you know this is the most alcoholic beer we’ve reviewed, you might suspect the nose to be a boozy event. Nevermind the thick, rich aromas, the flavors you’ll find include definite apple flavors coming through, with yeast flavors and bitterness and coming through. The booze notes don’t come through like we initially expected, but to compromise for that, there is some citrus flavor coming through. After more smelling, we felt the apple note came through very powerfully. The nose is crisp, attributed to the apple flavor, which begins to overpower the nose with its prominence. There is a small suggestion of pineapple to go along with the fruity notes. This nose will remind you of more of a pale ale than an imperial IPA, but we are determined to find more in the taste.

Arrival: The arrival is surprisingly light, with a suggestion of alcohol taste coming through. You’ll get a hint of sweetness, which might suggest that this beer isn’t what you’d expect out of an IPA. The arrival starts with a thin, flavorless entrance. It continues onto a lemon candy, slightly pine-like, and sweet arrival.

Body: The body is sort of eventless in the sense that it doesn’t hold much flavor or content. It is tart and runs off quickly. There is a slight suggestion of hops, pine, and pineapple, with some apple crispness coming through. There is a sourness that comes through in the body, partially due to the flavor of sour green apple that comes through on bigger gulps. There is a slight suggestion of bubblegum, attributed to an odd sugar characteristic that holds through on the body.

Finish: The finish is dry, long and crisp. There is a refreshing, mint-like flavor that comes through as the beer finishes. There is still some lemon-candy, sugary sweetness, almost akin to a modestly tart rock candy. There is still an odd sense of bubblegum, which we find as a playful oddity in this beer’s profile. There is something almost bread-like about the finish, which reminds you of a tough Italian white bread, which compliments but does not overpower the sweetness of the beer.

Final Comments:  You might say there are some compelling notes present in this beer, but it certainly has a bit of an identity crisis. This doesn’t fit like an IPA, coming closer to a barleywine flavor style, probably due to its high alcohol content. This is to be expected, but it does make a person question why they are buying an IPA in the first place. Another fallacy is that this beer claims to be for the ultimate hophead, and we are going to say it is not. Not even remotely, in fact. This beer is for somebody looking for an interesting way to get drunk, albeit they’ll enjoy the taste while getting there. Finally, the price doesn’t encourage purchase. This definitely weighs in as a novelty item, and what Dogfish Head should do is strive to bring out more complexity and hoppiness to the beer, so people feel like they’re actually buying an IPA.

Why you’d buy it: You just won a  lot of money by gambling, and want to show off that you have nothing better to do with it.

Why you wouldn’t:  There are better barleywines out there for less cost, and there are better IPAs out there for less cost.

Score: 8.0/10

Review 153: Short's Hopstache

Review 153

4/2/13

Short’s Hopstache: 6.0% abv

Background: For a second, let’s take a look at the history of Short’s Brewing Company. In Bellaire, Michigan, a brewer by the name of Joe Short purchased an empty hardware store. In the first year, there was only 178 barrels of production. In 2008, Short’s capacity increased to 8,000 to 10,000 barrels per annum. Here ends the history of Short’s Brewing Company. Short’s says they intend to stay small and focus on the Michigan area, producing quality mom and pop style beers. This is a pretty young brewery, but you can bet they have seen more popularity in the last few years.

Nose: The nose contains substantial notes of lemon, lime, and grapefruit, obviously. It has a tart, green apple note in it with a hoppy presence and a definitively floral and earthy, although it is well balanced in this manner. It also contains a little bit of a fresh grass smell to it. This is a pretty fresh nose which opens up the welcoming arms to spring, despite the fact that Michigan refuses to acknowledge this invitation. 

Arrival: Well there’s a lot of grapefruit here. There is slight apple note, and some interesting wheat grain there. There is a mild citrus in the arrival, but otherwise this is a pretty weak arrival. There is nothing really all that special about this arrival. There are also no mustaches.

Body: Besides having grapefruit, there is a small introduction of hops, but this becomes more prevalent in the finish. Otherwise, the body is also horribly anticlimactic, lacking any sort of event to it. We were sorely disappointed in the complexity, although the balance is satisfactory.

Finish: You guessed it: hops and grapefruit. There is a hint of grain in the finish as well, as you get a sense for a dry, bitter ending. Sweet lemon is also in here as well. It is a medium length finish, and the beer comes off very refreshing. It certainly comes off as a summer beer by any standards.

Final Comments: As we said before, this beer shouldn’t take you more than three big gulps to finish, as this is no Stone IPA. There are no mustaches to be found in this entire beer, and frankly, with the standard set by microbrewery IPAs, this does not match their intensity or complexity. We look for something more out of an IPA, and this should sit in a Pale Ale shelf.

Why you’d buy it: Because everybody else is.

Why you wouldn’t: You want to drink an IPA

Score: 7.0/10

Review 136: Stone Ruination IPA

Review 136

1/24/13

Stone Ruination: 7.7% abv

Background: Stone Brewing Company was founded in 1996. They are found in Escondido, California and as of 2010 they are 14^th largest craft brewery in the U.S. What is Stone’s house style? Bitter. They are the classic west-coast style brewery, which means they high hop content. Stone Ruination IPA is known for its high bitterness content, which we think is not a benchmark to strive for, but we’ll see if it pays off for this brew. Otherwise, there isn’t a lot to say about this. This is a mainstay beer, so you can find it at any time. Let’s get into it.

Nose: Pineapple, grapefruit, earthy, floral, citrus, pear, lemon, clementine, , crisp, fresh, more characteristic of a P.A, vanilla, kiwi, green grape

Arrival: Pretty much nothing, water, bland, tonic water, air

Body: Grapefruit, lemon, pear

Finish: Pine, juniper, boozey, gin, lingers, hops, dry, earthy

Final Comments: So it might appear to you that there is a lack of tasting notes on this one. That is because there is a lack of taste. I can try to be nice about this, but it’ll be pretty hard to say anything redeeming. This lacks flavor and content, and I understand the chase for bitterness that the IPA-drinkers have, but Stone has proven in the past that you can accomplish this without losing all sense of flavor. This shouldn’t be bottled and shouldn’t be produced. Sorry, but there is nothing about this that we like. The nose was good, but that wasn’t even a good thing because it only got your hopes up before disappointing you like a bad sequel.  

Why you’d buy it: You like hurting yourself

Why you wouldn’t: You don’t fall into the Darwinism category

Score: 3.5/10

Review 99: New Belgium Ranger IPA

Review 99

9/28/12

New Belgium Ranger IPA: 6.5% abv

Hate to drop the bomb now, but this one…hard to believe it’s 6.5%. It’s hard to explain how it costs what it does, or how it’s considered an IPA, and it’s hard to believe that this is what we’re writing review 99 on. Let me go out of my way to say New Belgium has been the rage of the town since it made it into Michigan, so we wanted to review one and let people know what we thought. Unfortunately, we picked the wrong one. This doesn’t hit any of the right buttons. But I’ll let you see for yourself. 

The nose on this beer is the best part, producing some fruity aromas of lemon, apple, pineapple and tangerine. The bitter notes of pine and hops come through as well, complemented by some dark earthy and floral notes, but they’re counteracted by some sugary nose as well. That sounds like a wonderful start, right? Well it is, like a plane catching speed down a runway. But then there is the getting off the ground. So the arrival? Lemon rind…and water…that’s all we got. And we twisted the rag on this one. That’s it. 

The taste has that key component again: water. That isn’t a great tasting note for an IPA. So what else is there? There is some light, kind of bland pine to it, light apple and lemon fruitiness, and slight bitterness. Don’t look further…sorry. The finish is good. Wait, no it’s not. Besides water, you’ll get slight grapefruit and hops. And not the kind of grapefruit and hops you would get from a rich, powerful Stone Guardian. The kind you’d get from a New Belgium Ranger. Don’t. Just don’t. 

Score: 3.5/10

Review 98: Stone 16 Year Anniversary IPA

Review 98

9/19/12

Stone Anniversary IPA 16 Years: 10% abv

Stone. We’ve been to Stone before. There is no doubt that Stone is an intense West-sider with a big flavor and huge punch. And apparently, for their 16th anniversary (now they can drive) they are producing an IPA for us. KCM didn’t know what to expect with this IPA, so instead of expecting, we just found out what the deal was with this, and hoped for the best. This is certainly a craft beer, at a hefty 10% abv and some interesting brewing additives. Like what you ask? Well...lemon verbena and lemon oils. You thought it would be pizza, didn’t you? It’s not. It’s lemon. This isn’t a mind-blowing combination, but enough to perk our ears up. So we poured a glass and took a deeper look. And look we did. And smelled. And here’s what we smelled. (It seems as if I’m trying to get as many periods in this review as possible...I’m not.)

 Onto the nose, my friends! The nose does introduce exactly what this beer is about. There are naturally some strong citrus notes to be found, including a bitter grapefruit with sweet lemon and clementine. The sweeter notes involved include honey, pineapple, honeydew, complimented by the sharp, refreshing pine notes and earthiness in the nose. And I’m sorry ladies and gents, but M insists that the earthy notes are actually notes of the left testicle of a fully grown ox OR moose (he’s not sure which one). In tasting the beer, there is a few sensations in the arrival, including a pleasant maltiness more common to a barleywine, perhaps, with some bitter pine, caramel and apple. 

The body has more detail to it, including caramel to it, malt and wheat adding graininess to the flavor, some pine wood and green grape, and then large lemon rind and lemon flavors jumping to the top. The finish gives out a little more to us, including big earthiness, which has nothing to do with moose or ox, and strange sweetness with sugarcane, agave and orange. There is some dry wheatiness is finish and some bitter grapefruit. Overall, this beer is not the typical bitter Stone beer that we’ve grown to know, but it does have a distinct and unique flavor to it. Unfortunately, it lacks the overall complexity of the barleywine and other IPAs, but looking at the intrinsic quality of this beer makes us think that we’re okay with that. This would be a nice enjoyable IPA for many occasions. Cue the ending credits.

Score: 9.0/10

Review 92: Round Barn Oak-Aged IPA

Review 92

8/24/12

Round Barn Oak-Aged IPA: 6.75% abv

Round Barn. It’s another Michigan brewery. Interestingly, though, it is also a distillery. As we focus more on liquors, and not just beers, we might look to local distilleries to provide their take on classic spirits like rum, whiskey and tequila. For now though, let’s see if Round Barn, one of the smaller Breweries on Michigan’s map, has what it takes in such a cut-throat world of Michigan Brewery excellence. Located in Southwest Michigan (Baroda), edging towards Indiana, Round Barn offers several different brews, and today we wanted to see what they could do with some oak. I can’t tell you much on Round Barn’s process, or the oak they use, but KCM will tell you everything you need to know about the beer itself. 

We were encouraged by the alcohol content, but as a precursor, don’t be encouraged by the alcohol content. But let’s start with the nose. The nose contains fruity notes, and not much else, of pineapple, lemon, pear, and a light white grape scent. Not going to waste your time explaining that this wasn’t an encouraging or complex smell. It just wasn’t. 

The taste doesn’t do much different. It can be described as watery, to say the least, but also includes pine, pear in the arrival, lemon and a slight earthy woody feel. This disappoints, but let’s not sell them short...or let’s. The finish is medium short, and no, we’re not rusty. There is just about only bitterness to it. Maybe grapefruit, maybe pine, but all brought together to show off some bitterness. In some ways it’s bad, in other ways, it’s not good. This went down in history as our shortest review ever. And for good reason. I wouldn’t personally suggest buying it, unless you’re into supporting small Michigan Breweries. 

Score: 5.0/10

Review 90: Sierra Nevada Hoptimum

Review 90

8/15/12

Sierra Nevada Hoptimum: 10.4% abv

Sierra Nevada. What do you know about Sierra Nevada? Well if you know anything about them, they’re pretty big. Like Sam Adams big. Not quite that big, but certainly big, all the same, they’re big. So what kind of beers they produce? A large variety of them, friends. One of those varieties is a double IPA, which is probably not as common as some of their more universal versions. Redundancy at its best. So what does Hoptimum have to offer, besides alcohol percent? Isn’t that enough? No. You need to spend your dollars well, friends. And here’s what we think of it: 

On the nose, you will find very fruity notes, with light bitterness to it. The fruity flavors include grapefruit, melon, citrus, lemon, pineapple, and light tart apple. There is caramel as well, followed by some pine and floral notes. The taste follows with consistency. There is honey and caramel on the arrival, along with apple, brown sugar and raisons. There is no doubt that there are some unique flavors in this beer, as it leads into the full flavor. 

The body provides a little more bitterness, with pine resin, grapefruit, and I seem to have written bitterness in here like five more times...this beer is bitter. I guess. Alright. So moving on. The finish is bitter...again...with some grain character, grapefruit, more bitterness, pineapple, floral notes, earthiness, and a dry aftertaste. This beer is syrupy in texture and full-bodied, but it is certainly unbalanced, and we weren’t necessary impressed. 

Score: 7.5/10

Review 82: Founders Devil Dancers

Review 82

7/17/12

Founders Devil Dancer: 12% abv

It’s not often we report IBUs (International Bitterness Units) in our reviews, but for this one, I think you have to. This is why. Devil Dancer is one of Founders specialty beers, but it is not just some lame oak aged beer. It is a TRIPLE IPA. There is certainly some intimidation that goes along with drinking a beer called Devil Dancer that’s a Triple IPA and ranks 112 IBUs on a scale that you rarely ever see above 90. I won’t lie, after having had Double Crooked Tree, I wasn’t so much interested in trying this beer at all, but we have some IPA junkies over here, so we did it out of obligation to our audience. I will say, it does have a calmingly beautiful amber color to it. And then it eats you alive like Cerberus would on your decent to Hades. I exaggerate. 

So what can we say about this one? The nose is not like Cerberus eating you alive, frankly. It is actually quite fruity, with an immediate impression of pineapple, peach, ripe pear, apple, lemon, cantaloupe, and grapefruit. Yeah, that’s just the fruitiness behind it. It has those sweet flavors of caramel, molasses, honey, and malt to it, but you don’t miss out on the floral and piny flavors as well. The taste will surprise you. And no, it doesn’t start or end with BITTER!!!!! The taste isn’t very “IPA”. It is malty, with a full mouth-feel, meaning it’s a little thicker in texture. It’s certainly not a lager. The sweeter notes resemble caramel, milk chocolate, maple syrup and pineapple. Contrasting that are the grapefruit and pine notes that are strangely not overpowering. So this beer isn’t bitter? What was all this hype about Cerberus and triple headed dogs and what-not. Yeah, hold onto your shorts, impatient reader. 

The finish will hit you different ways different times. It happens now and again that the beer you’re drinking can be hugely impacted by HOW you drink it. Meaning, how much of a gulp did you take, which part of the back of your throat did it hit, etc. And the bitterness behind this beer is the same way. Also, it builds up, like the heat behind a ghost pepper would. Needless to say, the finish is long and bitter no matter what, but there is sweetness and some interesting stuff goes on here. Let’s start with the basics: pine and lemony citrus, and that’s the basics. From here, our tasters came up with orange rind, coffee bean, sugarcane, rock candy, and Meyer Dark rum mixed with tonic. These notes might be a little obscure, but there is some truth to each of them. Like I said, this beer’s bark is worse than it’s bite. Ha! See, I went back to that Cerberus thing one more time! It’s good, but maybe not having the depth and complexity, or the balance that we seek in ideal beer world. 

Score: 9.0/10

Review 76: Oscar's Brewing Company Oscar's Folly

Review 76

6/27/12

Oscar’s Brewing Company Oscar’s Folly: 7.5% abv

As we’ve noted once or twice before, Oscar’s Brewing Company, or OBC (less of a burden to type) is actually a company that’s not actually a company, but a local native of Kalamazoo brewing his own beer with quite some talent. But he hasn’t been the only one brewing his own beer, as Bell’s took a particular interest to it as well during Bell’s Brewing competition. Since OBC won the competition with their Oscar’s Folly IPA, we figured we’d give it the kind of scrutiny you’d expect from several guys with no lives.  

Does this IPA measure up to the big dogs? Here’s us jumping into it. You might be surprised to find a very fruity, tropical smell to this beer, and not the super hoppy, bitter smell you would potentially get from your classic IPA. There is a tangy fruit smell, with only slight hops and pine to attribute to its bitter nature. Fruit notes we gathered included orange, pineapple, mango, and grapefruit. It does follow most IPAs with its floral smell. 

The smell doesn’t mislead you either, with the taste being very fruity. You get citrus notes of orange, lemon, and grapefruit, and even so much as lemon rind. There is slight pine, and a light amount of hops as well. There isn’t as much bitterness as you might have thought. The finish is noticeably short, with a hoppiness, grapefruit, and lemon being predominant flavors lingering from the taste. This is a unique IPA and almost reflects what a farmhouse IPA would be in bitterness, and fruitiness. Unfortunately, it does lack in complexity and we wanted much more finish. This makes for a good summer IPA, or an IPA for beginners who aren’t ready for the heavier ones. 

Score: 8.0/10

Review 55: New Holland Oak Aged Hatter

Review 55

6/7/12

New Holland Oak Aged Hatter: 7.12% abv

With only a few days left until Hatter Day, we have another beer on the table, and this one is quite the interesting one. Another IPA, but aged in oak casks for that extra something. What is that extra something, and how does it affect this beer? We are here to tell you exactly that. New Holland will tell you Kentucky oak casks were used for aging this bugger, but it's not clear whether they mean new charred white oak casks, or used bourbon casks. 

Off of the tasting notes, we'll guess it had used bourbon in it. Speaking of which, here they are. On the nose, you can find caramel, vanilla, honey, lemon and orange, pineapple, malt, cream, with earthy and floral notes to boot. Not the most complex of Hatter noses, but sweeter and pleasant. The arrival in the taste is sweet and mellow, with apple, lemon, honey, malt, pine, slight pineapple, and vanilla all being introduced into the taste. There is a definite, but subtle sweetness to this beer that reflects the influence of bourbon oak aging and contradicts the IPA style, in a good way. 

The finish is medium-long, possessing notes of pineapple, pine, citrus, wheat, sugary sweetness and light spiciness. Overall, this beer is a good expression of a variation on IPAs, and we'd love to see more of this in the future. There was some discussion on how significant the influence of the oak was by the panel, and it could be possibly greater, but it still holds a unique character and is respected for that reason. Just don't expect a drastic transformation. 

Score: 8.5/10

Review 60: Heavy Seas Black Cannon

Review 60

6/4/12

Heavy Seas Black Cannon: 7.25% abv

We haven't done a whole lot of black IPAs in our time, so we wanted to do another one. And who wouldn't want to drink a beer with a name as cool as this one. There's not a whole lot of background to this beer, but it's high alcoholic content encourages us that flavor is soon to arrive. To the tasting notes. 

On the nose, we find a very stout like smell, with chocolate, coffee, molasses, caramel, butterscotch, vanilla, and malt, but proceeds with some slight floral character, maple wood and peanut. This is a creamy smelling nose, and if you weren't being meticulous, you'd call it a stout. The taste, however...nope, like a stout. Instantly notable is the coffee, caramel, vanilla, molasses, chocolate, with unique tasting of orange and slight smokiness, ending with some butterscotch. The finish is sugary, with tobacco, peanut butter, apple, slight bitterness, smokiness and a medium-long length. 

This stout...IPA...IPS?...is actually rather unique, and with a variety of flavors to offer, it puts a unique spin on the stout character. But to call it an IPA is kind of silly. Unlike the Black Hatter by New Holland, it doesn't remind you that you're drinking an IPA. So because it's an IPA and we're rating it as an IPA, it doesn't hit the mark. But if you like stouts, this might be the right wrong beer for you. 

Score: 8.0/10

Review 53: New Holland White Hatter

Review 53
6/4/12
New Holland White Hatter: 5.5% abv

Continuing our countdown for hatter days, the next beer in line is the one with the old guy on it. This is a belgian-style pale ale, which means it is going to be a little less bitter than its IPA counterparts. Either way, this is a lighter style beer, and provides a contrast to the Mad Hatter/Imperial Hatter style.

On the nose, one can smell a nice balanced aroma, containing grape, mango, wheat, lemon, nutmeg, orange, pineapple, light fuji apple, a little bit of honey, and your standard pale ale bitterness with floral hops. The taste becomes less complex and thick, containing a grainy character, with orange, lemon, apple, lime nutmeg, and some floral influences. The finish is where things get a little disappointing.

The finish is grainy as well, with malt, grapefruit, wheat and pine being prominent notes, but also a large watery presence. The watery note might be intrinsic to this beer, but we believe it robs it of a deeper, more flavorful finish. This is still an enjoyable variation from the Mad Hatter, with a wonderful nose. It could use a little more of a finish, but it is still a good beer.

Score: 8.0/10

Review 52: New Holland Imperial Hatter

Review 52
6/3/12
New Holland Imperial Hatter: 9.38% abv

Another double IPA, and an introduction to our countdown to Hatter Day, June 16th. After having had the Mad Hatter IPA, we had a lot of respect for New Holland's IPA style. This one sits at a very reasonable percent, which is encouraging. So onto the tasting notes.

On the nose, like most of the higher percent IPAs we've had, most of the flavo...rs were balanced and well blended. There is strong notes of honey, earthiness, subtle hops, lemon, orange, pear, white grape, pineapple, and caramel on the nose. The taste contains caramel, lemon, with a slightly creamy arrival (which struck us as odd for an IPA), honey, molasses, apple, and grape on the arrival, with a slight hint of nutmeg. The taste is very complex, very refreshing, and considerably better than the Mad Hatter.

The finish is very long, containing vanilla, grapefruit, orange, nutmeg, a slight bitterness and lemon after a few seconds, with the same creaminess as in the arrival. This is an incredibly well crafted IPA, and deserves to be looked at. Taste and enjoy.

Score: 9.5/10

Review 24: Founders Dry-Hopped Pale Ale

Review 24
4/19/12
Founders Dry-Hopped Pale Ale: 5.4% abv

With a tradition of very exciting and original names, Founders brings us a dry-hopped pale ale. The nose on this beer is filled with traditional pale ale characters, having pineapple, grapefruit, honey, and cinnamon. It has to be said though that there is a slight off-putting scent in this beer, characterized as drying paint. It was not prominent and most would not notice it. The taste is hoppy, salty, with characters such as wood, malt, lemon, lime, pine and even some sprite. Although this is true, there is a watery character to the beer, which stands out like a hole in a bathroom stall. The finish is medium short, with malt, wood, and lemon-lime characters. The finish is pleasant, which makes it all the more disappointing when it's gone in two seconds. So for this one, the watery character, possibly intrinsic to the alcohol content, along with the shorter finish, really knocks this otherwise pleasant beer down. 

Score: 8.0/10

Review 15: Founders All Day IPA

Review 15
4/9/12
Founders All Day IPA Session Ale: 4.7% abv

This is an India Pale Ale, and there is a car on the bottle. I don't know why. Anyway. This has a nice floral nose, with peaches, apple, lemon, grapefruit, and slight ginger. The nose is extremely pleasant and easy. In the taste, there is hops, grapefruit, citrus, nutmeg and some herbal, floral notes. The finish is medium, but not complex, with a contrasting sweet and bitter combination, and with lemon jumping out. This is a nice beer that is easy to drink. Unfortunately, the complexity of this beer doesn't measure up to the Mad Hatter IPA from New Holland. 

Score: 8/10

Review 8: New Holland Mad Hatter

Review 8
4/1/12
New Holland Mad Hatter: 5.25% abv

This is an India Pale Ale and it is evident on first smell. The nose is complex with strong floral notes, pear, grapes, lemon, sugar, and sweet spice. The taste is hoppy, has lemon, strong notes of grapefruit, mint, and cinnamon. The finish is medium long and is VERY bitter, with lemon, juniper berries, grapefruit and is slightly salty. The bitter characteristics of an IPA can turn some people off to them, but if you can get past that, the complexity is worth enjoying. 

Score: 8.5/10