12oz bottle. Red-amber color. Aroma is sweet and herbal. Crisp, with a spicy hop balance. Rich malty sweetness, some nice earthy caramel tones. Definite red characteristics coming through as well as a solid hop backbone. Pretty good beer, and I’ll bet my rating would improve had I reviewed this beer brewery fresh.

Poured from 12 oz. bottle. Cloudy dirty copper color with peachy highlights. Thin, wispy head. Aroma of peaches or raspberries, almost like that cheap Avon perfume little girls used to wear. Front palate flavor favors malt with a strong hop presence in the middle palate. Bitter aftertaste almost bordering on sour. An interesting and complex beer for me that might be nice with a summer salad that included mandarin oranges or dried cranberries, just to highlight the fruit notes without overpowering them.

draft: full body taste, smoky malty flavor, average hops, overall a very good beer!

Draft - At first I thought this was a hoppy scottish style ale because I detected a moderate amount of smoked malt flavors. This worked quite well with the hop flavors and bitter finish. I really enjoyed this beer.

Bottling Date: 29-Nov-2007<br /> Deep slightly hazy amber/brown coloured body with a dense thick tan head that stays atop for quite a while. Aroma of fresh hops with more english hops than american. Some apricots in the nose, caramel and a bit of nuts tucked in too. Medium-bodied; Strong assertive bitter hop taste up front fading to an also strong nutty malt flavour soon afterward - very strong, yet complex. Aftertaste shows more of the hop bitterness than anything else, but some of the dryness of the malt comes, along with some pit fruit sweetness at the very end. Overall, a good decently well-rounded IPA. Tons of bittering hops, especially right at the very beginning and at the very end...but nice all around. I’d still prefer a Hop Pocket Ale to this one, but it’s great to try this Winter selection! I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased from Norm’s in Vienna, Virginia on 8-February-2008.