Full Sail IPA

Brewed by Full Sail Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Hood River, Oregon USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

I love Full Sail for their old school approach to craft beer, and this is one of their beers that is harshly underrated in my opinion. It isn’t very exciting and certainly doesn’t pack the fresh citrusy punch like most of it’s West Coast counterparts, but it is still distinctive and well made in its own right. It pours orange/amber gold with a thin creamy off white head. The aroma is nectar like with guava, mango, banana, and bready malt. The flavor is the same. Very nectar like with tropical fruit and a bready malt backbone. The finish had melon and a citrus peel finish. It’s interesting that the only remotely citrusy part of this beer comes in at the very end of the finish. I really like it. Especially for the price.

Looks spot on for an IPA. Light copper, slightly cloudy. Thin head, but some decent lacing. Decent malt smell. A little bit of an off putting sour smell. Not much going on. I have only had 3 IPA’s(Stone, Sierra Nevada and Broken Halo) but this one is the least impressive by far. It is suprisingly weak and boring. A little sweet and malty up front, but it finishes watery with a generally unpleasant bitter/sour taste that is in place of what should be hop bite. Overall, not at all impressive, not horrible, but I would choose many, many others over this one.

Bottle pours orange-gold with a creamy eggshell head that leaves a little lacing. Aroma is orange peel, pink grapefruit, peach, caramel, and perfume. Flavor shows the same with an additional biscuit malt presence that didn’t quite show on the nose. Overall body is light to moderate sweet, with a moderately bitter finish. Definately a more balanced, less aggressive IPA.

There ain’t no love for British-style IPAs - this one may not be the hop smack to the palate that a lot of American IPAs are, but it is a nice, dry, biscuity ipa none-the-less - the hops add more of a toasty, earthy flavor to the beer rather than an intense bitterness, but the bitterness is strong enough to satisfy the hop craving, without overwhelming the malt base - if you don’t like your ipas on the dry side, this may not be for you, but I quite like it.

Pours with large fluffy white head which lasts down the glass. Initial bite of bitter orange and grapefruit, superb full mouthfeel of citrus flavors followed by a long dry pleasantly bitter finish. A very well-balanced and drinkable IPA.

Nice strong IPA taste - Very hoppy and bitter. Pour is a medium cloudy yellow with a small white head that doesn’t last. Aroma is hops and a young earthy spruce.

12oz bottle from CBX. Pours a light copper color with very small white head. Very subdued citrus aroma, not much happening in this department. Taste is somewhat bland at first, with a tiny hint of citrus in the end. Crisp and refreshing in the mouth, but the overall taste doesn’t do it for me.

Pours golden with very little white head. Aroma of sugar and citrus. A bit lactic. Basic. Peppery hops, bitter citrus peel finish.