Bear Republic APEX

Brewed by Bear Republic Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Healdsburg, California USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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5 ounce sample on tap at Bistro IPA Festival. Chewy, grainy, hempy simcoe-ish aroma. A little grassiness is also there. Rather aromatic and quite pleasant, too. Mildly hazy copper body with a small, quickly dissipating off-white head. Hempy, catty, simcoe-like flavored start. Relatively sweet, chewy, malty body in the middle, which becomes slightly dry in the finish. There are some late piney hop flavors very late. Decent stuff.

UPDATED: MAR 23, 2009 Draught tulip at Sunset Grill on 6/7/07
Severely muddy appearance is full of burgundies, chestnuts and other brown-red tones. Small, beige-colored head recedes quickly to ring, leaving blotchy lacing.
Straight forward, PNW hopping in the nose is just your same-old citrus and pine, with mostly bitterness and no light fruitiness or fresh juiciness. Too much medium malt sugariness washes in quickly and soaks everything in sweetness, as an earthy, bland, somewhat dirty yeastiness sits on the finish, barely snubbing out the alcohol warmth.
In the mouth, aside from being loosely carbonated and full of wateriness on the end, the beer is vastly underattenuated and probably more resembles a barleywine than a double IPA. Citrus and pine attack and fatigue the palate, while nauseating amounts of caramel and pale malt sugars complete the overdone nature. No finesse, no balance, not even a nice mouthfeel. Wow, what the hell went wrong here?

Draft at Belmont Station: Pours a deep golden amber color with a thin white head. Aroma is of carmel and grapefruit. Flavor is malty carmel at first and then a strong fruit peel like bitterness. It goes back to the malt after that and all the sugary notes hit you, like sugar syrup, a little sticky. You then finally get the real fruity citrusy grapefruit hop characteristics. Lots of flavor but a little too much. 1 pint is enough.

UPDATED: OCT 11, 2008 [I had the good fortune to try this again at Blind Tiger - it left a much better impression this time - it was still a bit on the sweet side, but it was softer, less aggressive - next to their Mach 10, it was actually a bit tame - decent, but still not as good as most of the ratings indicate] Tap at Sunset Grill - cloudy orange with a lasting head - stereotypical, aggressive pine/grapefruit hop aroma, with a sticky malt undercurrent - abrassive hop bitterness, chewy body - sticky and overly sweet, tasting like grapefruit with a whole bowl of sugar poured on top of it - very apparent alcohol, burning the throat more and more as the beer warms - not terrible, just too in your face - a lot of people are going to like this beer for the very reasons that I do not.

Pours with a Golden -Orange body topped by a medium thick head with a good amount of lacing. It’s hoppy as hell with nice pine and grapefruit notes and an underlying maltiness. Medium bodied, oily yet dry and a touch warming.

On draft at O’Briens. Clear orangey amber color with a small whitish head and good lacing. Aroma of toasty malts, cturs hops and orange juice. Juicy sweet citrus flavors, caramel malts too, grapefruit notes and hints of spice with a nice puckering finish. Smooth, medium to full body, lightly carbonated. Enjoyable.

On tap@O’Brien’s: Hazy amber color with a small off-white head. Aroma is light and fruity. Flavor starts sweet and fruity with pineapple and mandarin orange with a tangy dry citrus rind finish. Light to medium bodied and smooth with moderate carbonation.

[draft @ Sunset Grill] Murky, brown amber color, with a short off-white head. Moderately sweet malt palate, with a a strong dose of fruity, citrus hops. Sweet toffee remains towards the finish. Overall, a solid beer.

UPDATED: FEB 4, 2007 Tap, O’Brien’s. Pours a deep amber color. Strong malty aromas. Fairly creamy tasting. Slightly sweet and malty. Not too strong of a hop presence for a 2IPA.

Intense hops and intense malts bordering on sweetness. Poured a hazy dark copper, with off white head that disipated after a min or so. For this style the carbonation and head where well done. Intense hop flavor supported by an iintense sweet malty palate, but not over cloying.