Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA

Bomber. Clear, gold body. Frothy, white head, mostly diminishing. Pleasant hoppy aroma of pineapple, orange peel, citrus, pine. Hints of caramel, apricots, grapefruit. The flavor is moderately sweet and moderately bitter. It finishes lightly to moderately sweet and moderately to heavily bitter. Moderately acidic. Mostly hop-driven taste, but enough sweet malts below the bitterness to add balance — except in the finish which is long lasting and bitter. Medium body, velvety texture, moderate carbonation. Not as well balanced or as interesting as Alpha King, for example, but still a nice, bitter IPA.

Golden with a small white head. Aroma of tangerine, peach and caramel. Very sweet with a chalky, acrid bitterness

Meh. I think I might need to try it again. Felt just a touch to alcoholic to be a session IPA, not quite enough to be a DIPA. Weird middle ground. Palate was off due to the place serving it. Consider this a PSA for the Red Room in Santa Cruz to get their shit together and carbonate their beers properly.

Bottle pours yellow gold, almost orange, with a healthy off-white head. Aroma is peach, grapefruit, pine, and grass. Flavor follows up with additional notes of caramel. Floral, crisp, and leads into a long-lasting, bitter finish. Good stuff, but nothing really deserving of the hype.

Bomber from Total Wine. Aroma is heavy citrus and I got a lot of sweetness as well - mainly plums and honey. Flavor is well-balanced - more toasty and caramel malt than I was expecting, given what I’d read about the beer, a nice piney note to it. ALl in all - I was a little let down. Still a very good beer, but very different in profile than I was expecting - the bready malt taste and mouthfilling quality of same overtook the citric hops from the nose really quickly. Quite possible I had an older bottle, I suppose. I’ll give this one another shot. All in all - still a very drinkable IPA.

citrus and pine smells. big hop taste. golden/amber color. coats the tongue effectively

Shaker pint darft at Malt and Vine in Redmond, Washington. Pour is mostly clear, with a bit of haze - golden light orange with a small white head. Great sticky lacing on the glass as the beer drinks down. Aroma of citrus fruit, soft floral honey notes and a nice caramel toasty maltiness. Really balanced nose. Taste is really full hop - citrus tangerine, resin honey floral, with a good malt backbone - toasty more grain. Palate is medium, nice mouth filling flavor, gentle bitterness on the finish. Really my kind of IPA.

Bottle, shared with Parksy and pitted against Sierra Nevada Torpedo. Pours a deep hazy gold with a thick white head. Very resinous citrus hop aroma. On the palate, the malt is nearly completely eclipsed by the hoppiness: resinous, pithy citrus, reedy and vegetal. Very assertive bitter finish. This outshone Torpedo IMHO. A crazy-good IPA!