Coast Range IPA

Formerly brewed at Coast Range Brewing Co.
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Gilroy, California USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

Any first impressions?
-A decent head remains on the orangey glow.
-Stringy, grassy and orangey hops bulk up over the biscuity malt.
-A full malt mouthfeel offers solid caramel support.
-An appreciable resinous hop bitterness prolongs the mouthful.

What if you dig deeper?
-Wooden notes appear in the aroma, along with bread crumbs.
-The tight carbonation is cushiony, admirably sewing the mouthfeel’s intricacies.
-This is a well-crafted IPA, nothing more, nothing less.

Bottle; no date.

Good solid color, a sunny golden glow veiled by a good haze, though the head retention is average at best. Typical hop attack reaches the nose, with simplistic orange C’s and archetypal crystal malt sweetness. Unsurprising in mouth, growing a moderate bitterness and offering more of the same classic flavours. Well brewed, but undistinctive besides a highly competent light-medium body that boasts a very crisp texture through a well distributed medium-high effervescence.

UPDATED: FEB 25, 2005 RERATE:Orange gold color. Large white foamy head. Aroma is fruity, citrusy and a touch earthy. Medium bodied IPA. Malts are fruity and sweet, lots of citrusy hints. Hops are grapefruity and citrusy. Slightly bitter, somewhat juicy IPA. Again this newer version is MUCH better than the version from a couple of years ago. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is bitter. --------&# brown color, small head, and hoppy nose. Roasted malts, medium hopped IPA. Finish is a little watery, kind of weak. Aftertaste is slightly bitter. OLD RATING 2.8

Botle. Amber beer with a big off-white head. Nice citrus aroma. Grapefruit hop flavor with a bit of caramel malt backing. Creamy medium-body.

Sweet orange, grapefruit and some caramel malts are apparent in the nose. Hazy golden orange coloured body is topped by a low, fine bubbled, white head that recedes to a lasting cover with some sudsy lacing. Somewhat vegetal, green citrus hops are sharp in the flavour with pronounced bitterness and not a lot of malt character. Medium body with moderate, fine bubbled effervescent carbonation. Bottle (trade, May-05) sampled with beerbuzzmontreal, MartinT, Oliver_MTL, Rastacouere and Yowie. Thanks, DarkElf!

Slightly cloudy orange pour with a thin white head. Aroma of caramel with citric hops. Good flavor of fruity hops with well rounded caramel malt and a bitter finish. The palate is light and creamy with soft carbonation. A good IPA but there’s nothing captivating.

Bottle: Courtesy of DarkElf via trade. Aroma of sweet citrus, caramel, and light grassy hops. Pours a bright transparent orange with a small soapy white head. Lots of caramel up front with a light sweet citrus. Piney hop finish is not strong enough to balance the initial malt.

UPDATED: MAR 22, 2005 (22 oz bottle: $2.99 at BevMo in Carmel Mountain/San Diego, CA) This is an interesting and wonderfully enjoyable IPA. It starts off fairly malty, mildly sweet and nicely balanced with bitter hops. The malt shows a bit of grain/corn, which might be looked upon with some disfavor by some people, but I think it seems to mesh very nicely with the hop flavors. Yup, quite flavorful. That’s a great start for an IPA. Then a sharp grapefruit rind bitterness becomes especially pronounced in the finish, holding onto the tongue with a vice-like death grip. Normally, I might not care for the finish, but the powerful hops tastes so incredibly fresh and delicious, I’m really into this beer. The nose is well balanced, malty and hoppy, but the moderate aroma of hops doesn’t come close to predicting how hoppy the finish is. Crisp and clean on the palate, but with nice body for a round mouthfeel. Dark golden color is very attractive. Off-white head is sizeable, and shows excellent retention, maintaining a quarter-inch layer atop the beer for the entire session. And oh, look at all that ringed lacing! Incredible. Honestly, I didn’t expect much from this beer, but what a pleasant surprise. This is a very fine IPA, maybe even outstanding. I sampled a second bottles of this IPA, just to be sure, and I’m still just as impressed.