Bear Creek Jacks India Pale Ale

Formerly brewed at Bear Creek Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Redmond, Washington USA

From the bottle.

Pours a cloudy golden orange with a big foamy white head. The nose is grapefruit juice, a bit of pine, and a sort of off-tone sourness, almost skunkiness. The flavor is more sour than many Pac NW IPAs, but is dominated by a hard metallic bitterness from the hops that arries through the whole spectrum from the initial taste to the finish. We’ve got the right ingredients here for a really nice IPA, but they don’t come together as one might hope and the whole falls short of the sum of the parts. The rotting-leaves sourness doesn’t help. The palate is reasonable but nothing special.

Copper in color with small bottle pour head. Light fruit on the nose, flavors of much the same. Hoppy up front with a touch of honey mixed in. Very light IPA, clean finish.

(12 oz bottle: Bottleworks in Seattle, WA) After rating three mildly hoppy IPAs from the East Coast, I guess it’s time to shock me back into reality with an IPA from the Pacific Northwest. And really, it’s not close to being a hopbomb either, but compared to the others, this seems significantly more hoppy. It has a solid pale malt backbone, moderately sweet and fruity, with a light toastiness, but the citrusy hops is quite bitter and more than balances out the significant maltiness, easily taking on a dominant position in this beer from start to finish. The nose isn’t especially aromatic, but projects a fair amount of hoppiness, malts being lighter, just like in the flavor. Body is light-to-medium, and fairly crisp on the palate. Medium golden color, and slightly hazy, but carbonation bubbles are sparse. Off-white head pours very small despite my attempts to coax more height, and after a few minutes, all that’s left is the tiniest of rings along the edge. Consequently, lacing is non-existent. Eh, it’s okay, probably just an average IPA, not great, but decent enough to be a session IPA if I were so inclined.

Clear orange appearance, good head formation. Spicy, orange aroma. Hoppy palate but very mellow, some biscuity middle tones, turnng to strong citric grapefuit in the middle. Bitterness doesn’t really play its part until late and then is especially strong, otherwise its all pretty mellow stuff.

12oz bottle. Orange gold color. Medium sized white foamy head. Aroma is floral, citrusy and orange peel. A medium bodied IPA. Malts are fruity and sweet. Hops are grapefruity, citrusy and piney. Decent balance. Medium bitterness IPA, kind of sharp and crisp tasting. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is crisp and quite dry. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

12oz bottle. Musty, leafy muddled aroma, with some wet grains and musk. Flavor up front is transparent, murky semi-sweet hops and toast, while on the back, more leafy qualities from the hops are evident and it begins to resemble an IPA. Tasted along side Alesmith IPA which blew it out of the water.

(Bottle) Cloudy, yellow-orange body with a creamy, medium-sized head. Nose of sour milk and seville oranges. Bitter upfront and hoppy through and through. Above average.

Good looking clear copper color with a medium white head. The aroma is grassy florescent hops. The flavor is a strong grassy hop bitterness from start to finish. And, even when finished the flavors continue to linger. Lacking in any sort of balance, but it’s made up for with a tinge of creaminess in the texture. Overall, this one’s a good kick.