Caldera IPA

Brewed by Caldera Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Ashland, Oregon USA

Bottle; poured a really nice looking amber color ith a medium to large, and firm, white head. Aroma was a nice blend of citrus, grapefruit, pine, herbs, and BO, with a bit of caramel and toffee. A bit buttery in the flavor, which was not great. Some nice pine and citrus, but a bit too much of the unpleasant maltiness. Still it was a pretty solid beer overall.

Can, $2.15 at Wine Warehouse, Charlottesville. Pours an amber-orange with a small off-white head. Mainly pine in the nose, with some grapefruit. Heavy, bitter pine flavor.Some lingering pepper in the finish.

Colorful can. Pours monstrously chill-hazed orange with a lacy white head. Aroma of apricots with a smidge of grapefruit and tofee. Medium body and low carbonation. Sweet taste of toffee citrus and fruit, with a dry pine and grapefruit finish. You might disagree with the hops profile, but this beer delivers what IPAs are supposed to do. Well, that plus the chill haze.

Qiuite possibly my first IPA out of a can. As someone previously mentioned a novelty purchase at $13.50/6-pack at Cape Wine and Spirit in Lewes, DE. Tastey IPA but nothing mind-blowing here. A solid IPA but nowhere near worth the price.

Pour is an orange with a small almost flat head. Aroma is is hoppy with more of a sweet malt taking over the hops profile. Flavor is where the hops kick in. Hops dominate most everything from the first sip to the swallow but finishes quite dry. A decent offering but quite expensive at $11.99 a six. Probably paying for the novelty of the can.

Can from Santa. Thanks! Pours a semi-thin cheddar orange with a lively body and a head of white that leaves a nice latticework of lacing around the glass. Aroma is almost pure hopyy grapefruit; hints of pine and orange are in there as well but the dominant figure here is grapefruit. Flavor is dominated by the aforementioned frut, with bits of orange and pine in the finish. Full, coating, tingly mouthfeel. A great IPA; I want more of this.

This beer struck me as a very malt-forward IPA; lots of caramel was evident from start to finish in both its aroma and flavor. Even it’s color, in a different sense, could be described as caramel. It was a pretty good beer, but I prefer my IPAs to be a little more hop dominant, and a little less malty. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t think it was anything to write home about. Color was a dark rich amber color, with a good amount of head. Aroma was malt first, with lots of caramel notes and some hoppiness. Flavor was exceedingly balanced, more like an amber ale than an IPA, with the hops just barely peeking out from behind more caramel flavor. Mouthfeel was light, crisp, and pleasant. Quite a satisfying beer, but it didn’t really scratch my itch for hops. A huge thank you to JaBier for gifting me a can of this beer; otherwise I probably never would have tried it.