Durham Hop Addict

Brewed by County Durham Brewing
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Pickering, Canada

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

Golden-amber. The aroma is a panoply of hoppage - earthy, citrusy (yuzu, grapefruit), woody, perfumey with light caramel malt. Woody palate is moderately bitter with slight caramel, toffee, and hints of brown sugar.

Tap at Beer Bistro and Volo. Copper coloured brew. Aroma is loaded with pine and sweet grapefruity citrus. Lean crisp malts with a bit of breadiness as well. Flavour is quite nice. Good balance of pine and malt with a firm bitterness on the back. Lingering piny resinousness. Excellent IPA.

On tap at the Black Tomato, Ottawa, Gold orange ale with a thin white head.. Aroma of floral piney hops,with light berry notes. In mouth, a good biscuitty malt with classy floral hops. Medium bodied. A good IPA, but not as hoppy as the name suggest (but for Ontario standards, pretty decent).

Objectively speaking: A dry-hopped, rather potent hop lotion where hop leaves where still visible from the cask serving.
I like: Extremely easy to drink. Pleasant citrusy notions. Highly pleasant bready malts make an excellent basis for the hops to shine on. Cracker-like chewiness- rather bright and certainly very clean also. Surprisingly high level of bitterness grow form sip to sip.
I dislike: Rather unappealing appearance, totally headless and full of hop residues. No oiliness despite having fresh hops in the glass, it lacks any trace of fresh perfumey, floral hop aromas. Alcohol feels much higher (6.5-7%) than it really is.

UPDATED: AUG 12, 2007 Nothing special to look at,golden yellow with bubbles. A whiff of C-hops. Good bitterness, significant hops and malted. Balanced. However, Run-of-the-mill IPA but nicely drinkable. A good effort by a local microbrewery. Served on the too-cold side at Smokeless. Creamier and lacier when had a year later at Victory.

UPDATED: MAR 6, 2007 Tasted Blind, March 2007. Volo IPA Challenge Sample #5
Orangey copper amber, fast fading head. Moderate orange and tangerine citrus notes in the hoppy aroma. Pleasant orange bitterness is fairly well balanced with malt and resin notes. (7+). Slightly more full than average palate. (3+) Not the highest scoring on my official score sheet, but possibly the one I would be most likely to have more of on this day. 7-8/3/7+/3+/16 - 3.8 <P> Volo Cask Situation, Cask #6 Hazy golden amber body. Interesting orangey funky aroma is oddly fruity – apricot? Astringent lemon rind aroma is not unpleasant but kind of strange. Bitter almost astringent ambiguous citrus is a bit rough and discordant at first – like non-optimally aged citrus fruit. Average palate is just a bit too flat. Tried this again the next day and found it to be much more palatable. Orange citrus comes out much more fully in both the aroma and flavour, and better rounded out in all areas. 5-6/3/5/3/10-12 <P> May 2006 Draft. Orange dark amber body with a small off white head. Sweet orange citrus aroma with light malt underneath. Big hoppy flavour is briefly mildly citrusy but quickly gives wat to lightly astringent very resiny green hops. Average palate is a touch light but adds to its drinkability on the patio at Volo. Decent, but more citrus or malt to complement the not so delicate hops would boost it higher. 6/3/7/3/15 - 3.4

Aroma of refreshing earthy , medium intense bitterness with solid malt base . Appearance : dark amber ,low carbonation , creamy head on top. Medium-full bodied , raw hop character , sticky texture. Bitter but flat finish . Its hop character reminded me of raw garden greens . Average .

Tap at Caeli Cottage in Toronto. Pours a light amber- deep copper with a thin but lasting white head. Aroma is sharp nutty toasted malts caramel- crystal malts and light fruitiness with a ctirus and orange zest light pine hop kick. Flavor is hoppy, a bit resinous with some pine with a toffee and caramel maltinss, toast and a gritty hoppy bitterness in the end. I liked drinking the Hop Head IPA a bit more just because it was easier to drink- this was a bit too tacky in the end. Solid though.