Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA (USA) (Bottle)

Brewed by Belhaven (Greene King)
Style: American Pale Ale
Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland

On-tap at Plain Kitchen, Gothenburg. Amber color with off-white head. Aroma of hops, toffee, fudge, biscuits and citrus fruits. Tastes of toffee, fudge, butter, citrus fruits, flowers and moderate bitterness. Creamy but still dry mouthfeel. Maybe a bit light on the hops for an IPA, but still a good ale.

Pours clear gold with a medium sized, low density head. Fairly ugly, actually. Decent lacing and a lasting effervescence saves the brew from visual obscenity. Nice, somewhat mild grapefruit scent with some underlying malt sugars. Taste includes pine needles, grapefruit, a small bitter bite, and a cloyingly sweet malt character. Hoppy finish. The odd sweetness seems to cause a lack of balance.

On tap at the Sharp Edge Beer Emporium. Barely detect any arom. Perhaps a bit of rootbeer but certainly not IPA, just clean and clear nose. Ubiquitous pale yellow american lager appearance. Barely any carbonation. Interesting taste, almost like a good saison with a bit of bitterness. Yes, some malt or hop bitter bite, but it lacks any of the ’in yer face’ attributes of the IPAs. Almost a friend in some ways. I even detect a little tartness with each sip. I just had a S/N Harvest that was much more offensive than this. Overall, not bad for an IPA but now I see RB classifies it as APA, no wonder,. Finish leaves you with a medium medicinal bitterness that hangs for just a little while.

Bottle from the LCBO. Amber pour with an effusive white head. Mild hop aroma. Smooth on the palate. A lot of sweet malts, but lacking a good level of bitterness to balance this out. A little bit too bland and subdued for my tastes.

500 ml bottle. Darkish amber color with a large white head and a lot of sediment. Aroma is a bit hoppy and a bit sweet. Taste was an interesting blend of Scottish Ale style malty sweetness and IPA hoppiness. Tasty, but didn’t seem to fit the IPA to me.

500 ml bottle. poured amber with an ave white head. carbonation kept re-building the head all the way down the glass which left perfect lacings. i could count my sips in the lacings. aromas were hoppy but muted. pale malt was also in the nose. flavours were similar with the pale malt really coming through as it warmed which took away from the hops. overall it was ok but a little dissapointing, i was expecting more.

500ml bottle, that still says 6.1% ABV. Pours a nice deep copper, with a tinge of amber, and a large tan head. Aromas of hops, that’s pretty much it. The taste is nice, malty and hoppy the whole way through, very fruity, with a decent bitter finish, and fruity after taste (malt + hop blend). It’s not intenesly bitter, but it’s still got plenty of bite to it. I strongly disagree with the APA classification. It’s probably more like an IPA than it is an APA. I think EPA would be fair enough, or even bitter, but APA seems ridiculous to me. Is it just too malty without enough bitterness? It does remind me a little of St. Ambroise pale ale, but not all THAT much. I have no idea where the 5.3abv came from either, because this is a fresh(ish) bottle, and it still claims to be at 6.1%abv. I’m tempted to send corrections at some point, or at least inquire as to what the hell is going on. Good beer though.

Pours a orange/amber colour with a big cloudy creamy head that has good retention and sticks to the side of the glass all the way down. Aroma is floral and hoppy with notes of caramel and cardboard. Flavours are subtle but complex, with a light malt caramel backbone, and lots of hoppy bitter citrus flavours of grapefruit and orange zest, has a bitter herbal tasting finish. All and all a pretty damn tasty Pale Ale.