Full Sail Sunspot IPA

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

Full Sail is really pulling off quite a feat this year with their Brewmasters reserves series, there has just been a bunch of really great new brews. The sun spot IPA is no exception, pours a nice red color with a off white head that leaves moderate lacing. Citrusy hop aroma as well as a slight sweetness to it. This IPA is bitter the whole way through, the hop taste just strikes you right away. Smooth and dry, a nice break from some of this hot summer weather.

Bottle: Beautiful crimson hue below a frothy beige head. Medium-bodied, smooth and really creamy texture. Had a little malt sweetness, but hops really took the stage. Juicy, citrusy (orange and lemon) and very piney. Hoppy enough to make me sneeze. Slight acidity felt in the gums. Pretty big bitterness intertwined with the citric bite (grapefruit sourness and bitterness). Quite a bit of bitterness in the aftertaste. Hop monster.

I would have only had the sample if I could, but it was really hard to make it through an entire pint. Way too malty for what I desire in an IPA, piney hops, overcarbonated and unbalanced.

02-Dec-04 (22 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with derekarent, thanks Derek!) Yikes, this is a really bitter beer. The piney hops flavor is so sharply bitter, especially in the finish, it’s actually a little unpleasant. Otherwise, this big IPA is very floral and sugary sweet, and has a significantly caramely malt backbone. Moderately hoppy nose, somewhat floral and fruity. Medium bodied with a substantial palate. Copper in color, with a slight haziness. Off-white head is average in size during the pour and slowly subsides to a thin layer. Some ringed lacing is deposited on the glass. This is a pretty good beer, big and bold, but if it wasn’t quite so bitter, I’d really like it. (7, 4, 6, 3, 13, total 3.3)

17-Mar-05 (22 oz bottle: $3.75 at Liquid Solutions in Tigard, OR) I decided to rerate this beer since it was available for purchase at Liquid Solutions. Maybe the hops has mellowed a bit with this bottle, but not much. It’s still very much a hops dominated beer with strong grapefruit and floral notes, sweet and malty in the background. The nose is floral and grassy with the obvious grapefruit hoppiness. Deep copper/orange in color, with a pronounced haziness this time around. And the off-white head is very active, pouring to over 3 inches in height, and slowly subsiding to a thick, creamy quarter-inch topping, leaving plenty of foam on the glass. In the end, I guess this bottle was pretty consistent with the first bottle, but I’m enjoying the strong hops this time around. What I’m not as enthused about is the strong floral nature of this beer. So while my grades remain identical, I have a different reason for not being all that crazy about this beer. (7, 4, 6, 4, 13, total 3.4)

08-Aug-05 (Nitro Draft: Full Sail Brewing Company in Hood River, OR) Well, fresh at the brewery, and on nitro, this beer is just too hoppy for me, with little else to balance it. A brew for the true hopheads out there. Not a fan, so this is it for me

The beer after its dispensing from the 22-ounce brown bottle sets in the glass an undarkened burnished copper color, the head piled majestically upon the body, the texture creamy and the color a beauteous light tan as it dissolves ever so slowly the lace forms a thick and glutinous sheet to obscure the glass. Nose is all about hops, sweet malt and a nice citrus like crispness polishes off this treat for the eyes and nose. Start is ambrosial, rich in malt, the top middling in its feel to the palate; finish has a distinct acidity, the hops potent in their spicy bite, the after taste sweet and dry with a continuance of the hops spicy bitterness, a delightful brew on this hot Arizona summer Sunday, Cheers Y’all!

Very flowery/hoppy aroma. Great. Cloudy orange. Could get like a 12 in the aroma category. This is a really good IPA. Very biting and fresh, with lots of hops from start to finish.

22 oz bottle, via kyzr. Pours a clear light copper body under a thinnish fizzy beige head that left some light lacing. Aroma is citrusy grapefruity hops over a lightly malty base. Flavor was fairly balanced, meaning mostly that there wasn’t an abundance of either malt or hops in this one. Finished on the maltier side with some toasted and toffee notes. Mouthfeel was medium bodied with moderate fizzy carbonation and a slight stickiness on the finish. Your basic run of the mill quality IPA.

Amber,off white head.Light citrus hop nose.Medium citrus hop profile throughout,lasting bitterness in finish.Good lace. A bit too light bodied