Fire Station 5 Steam Pumper IPA

Brewed by MacTarnahan’s Taproom (Pyramid Breweries)
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Portland, Oregon USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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12-oz. Pours a perfectly clear medium copper with a thick moussy tan head that falls away pretty quickl;y. Sweet malt, smoke, and rotting vegetables on the nose. Well, that’s just too bad. Moderately assertive attack; medium body, active carb, and somewhat forward flavors. Biscuity, c-hoppy, and caramely on the palate; lingering c-hop on the finish. Nothing special, nothing awful. Too many brewers are willing to settle for brewing beer like this, which is too bad, but it could be worse. Drinkable enough.

[12oz Bottle] A deep dark golden color with a nice aroma of hops. Not bad for a mass produced beer. Liked the hops flavor btut his was weak in comparison to other NW brews. This beer needed help.

Pours to the typical IPA hazy golden orange, with medium off-white head that lingers nicely, and shrinks to leave good lacing. Aroma is a nice blend of bitter hops and citrus, mopstly grapefruit, with the flavor following suit. The only issue I had with this beer was the palate. While it was dry and bitter as expected, it left a funky aftertaste, like a mixture of old wet tube sock and cardboard (not that I really know how that combination tastes). Aside from that, not a bad IPA.

Found a sixer of these in Paducah a few weeks ago. Nice looking, with a mildly hazed orange body and a small offwhite head that lays down some nice lacing. Grassy hops and pine resin to the nose. Light medium body is well carbonated. Brash dry hops are somewhat grassy and quash any suggestion of a serious malt presence. Pine cone and fresh hay notes also lurk. Pretty decent for style but nothing special.

Bottle. Clear, filtered amber orange colored body with a white and tan head. Very lively body, lots of bubbles. Oily hop cone scent, somewhat plasticy and moldy, but otherwise a solid and strong oily hop nose... sweaty and sweet. Tastewise it’s somewhat crisp, though bland, and thin in the body and lacking any depth of flavor. OK overall, lightly sweet, light honey and leafy flavors, but nothing remarkable.

bottle poured golden color, with white head that cleared quickly. Aroma is earthy, fruity and slight hoppy. Mildly carbonated. Flavor is a citrus fruity, mildly hoppy (for an IPA), and other sweet flavors. Very crisp and clean.

(12 oz bottle: Gift from SDbruboy, thanks Cliff!) I thought this was yet another brewery started by firemen, but it’s a hoax this time. This beer has a nice, citrusy hoppiness, but the odd, husky graininess of the underlying malt base isn’t the most pleasant. A grapefruit peel bitterness emerges in the finish and isn’t especially enjoyable either. A decent nose though, some herbal tea and grainy malts providing the most evident aromas. Medium-bodied with average carbonation and a decent crispness late in the finish. Golden-colored body is slightly hazy, but the wide column of bubbles rising through the center of the glass are still plainly visible. The smallish, off-white head is fairly creamy and remarkably persistent. A mediocre IPA that I certainly won’t go searching out when San Diego is loaded with excellent IPAs.

Bottle. Poured hazy copper with an average frothy white head that was mostly lasting with good lacing. Moderate sour citrus hoppy aroma. Medium body with soft carbonation. Medium bitter citrus flavor with a medium bitter smooth finish of moderate duration.

12 oz Bottle pours out a amber/yellow topped off with a off white head. A nice hops aroma. But the flavor was a let down not the hops I was hopeing for.

Bottle. <!-- p --> Pours a clear orange amber with a nice white head. The aroma is cascade hops - citrus with a hint of dry grass and little else. The flavor is a relatively mild by west-coast standards but nice enough cascade bitterness, a little bit of biscuit malt, orange and grapefruit peels with a moderate bitter finish. <!-- p --> This is a perfectly quaffable beer, no major flaws. I enjoyed it as a straight forward IPA. That’s the good part. The bad part is that there’s nothing exciting about it, either. It’s just another reasonably good, largely unimaginative, American IPA.