Big Buck IPA

Brewed by Big Buck Brewery
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Gaylord, Michigan USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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Sampled draught at Big Buck, Grapevine, Texas.
Amber coloured. VBig grapefruity hop aroma. Firmly malty with very bitter finish, but still rather balanced. Listed at 6.2%, 58 IBU.

Draught at the brewpub, as Armadillo I.P.A., 6.2% ABV
Hazy light amber color with a nice lace. Powerful hoppy aroma, fruity (oranges) and with a sharp pine needles character. Medium body structure, enough malt flavor, and most of all a strong hopping, (again with a lot of resins and pine needles). Very good!

(Draught) Pours a cooper color with a white head. Good hoppy IPA.

(Grapevine) Clear amber body with off-white head. Aroma is medium sweet, strong grapefruit, light caramel. Taste is the same, with a relatively mild bitterness and a very dry finish. Light-medium body.

Draft. Poured hazy copper color with an average frothy off-white head that lasted with fair lacing. Moderate sour citrus hop aroma. Medium body with a slick texture and soft carbonation. Moderate bittersweet flavor with a moderate bittersweet finish of medium duration. Good brew.

Sample at the Gaylord location: Pours a dark amber color with a medium ivory head that lasts a long time. Fair amount of lacing as well. The aroma is big on citrus and hops, with a nice malt undertone. Medium-bodied with a flavorfully bitter character. Citrus and floral hops up front, along with some sweet fruit and malt. The finish is crisp and hoppy with a nice aftertaste. A solid example of an IPA.

On tap at Grapevine, Tx location. Copper hue with a nice head and outstanding lacing, medium-bodied. Big fruity and piney aroma, note that they use Amarillo hops from Texas, that's different. Also detected sweet and roasted malt undertones. As expected hoppy initial taste, mellows out into an English style IPA. Dry and lively mouthfeel, slight bitter and metallic finish. I liked this a lot, well crafted IPA. True to traditional style except for the color. Recommended.

5 oz draught sample at the Gaylord, MI location, July 2006. Lots of lacing and a well-retained head top the medium-orange hazy-thick body....luscious aromas of peaches, limes, apricots and sour apples and with more warmth, pine tar, really a cornucopia of American hops but held together with imagination and never descending into chaos....the body also massively fruity, quite light though not thin, crisp and clean with soft carbonation and just enough biscuity malt to keep the fruitiness from cloying and the hops from burning....but overall this is a big hophead’s delight and probably the best of the samples I had.

On tap: Nice malty and sweet grapefruit aroma. Hazy orange with a yellowish head. Great lacing. Real light malt up front with moderate hop finish. Decent but could be a little stronger and more balanced. Unlike the aroma, there isn’t much malt in the flavor.

UPDATED: AUG 18, 2006 Draught pints on 6/2/06 at Big Buck Gaylord. Deep bronze-brass color is very glassy, with only medium clarity. Head is large, white, frothy and mostly well-retained, fading eventually to cover, with light lacing. Strong centennial-like hops in the nose spell out melons, leafy, juicy hop buds and some floral notes. The toasty malt crowds in quickly as well, being both sugary and then lightly bready, perhaps some munich or heavy crystal malt in low doses. The strength is quite high, and for that it’s quite welcome. Just a bare touch of soapiness or sourish something on the very end, but the hops cover it up mostly. The juiciness continues in to the flavor, where the hops seem a bit bogged down by the sugary, perhaps slightly underattenuated malts (to my taste, anyways, it’s not like it’s worty or anything). Wet, with some wateriness, but still enough juicy, fat hoppiness and creamy sweet malts to hold on until the end. Again, a dry, sourish note builds up on the finish, not terribly disconcerting, but still enough to draw attention. Soft carbonation and a mostly chewy, lightly filtered body. No alcohol notable.