Great Waters Flying Circus Big Hop Ale

Brewed by Great Waters Brewing
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
St. Paul, Minnesota USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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From the growler shared at a Minnesota party. Promising hop aroma. Average hop profile. I really like GW’s cask ales--I think this brewpub is under-rated in Minnesota. This growler didn’t reflect the best of their cask properties, but it’s also a relatively tame, normal amber-hued IPA--coming from someone who is always critical of hoppy beers.

On Cask at the Brewpub: Big orangey browned color with a hefty head of lightly tanned frothy thick foam on top. Keeps a good amount always present. Lots of lacing in big patchy sheeting and broad strings. Aroma is biscuity dry with a piney resin and slight lemony/grapefruity tug of pithy bitterness which grows intensely as it sits. Taste is bit strange, mainly due the Golden Promise malts that are used well beyond their means. The balance isn’t what I’d like to see out of an IPA. Dry, biscuity flavors abound, crystal and pale maltyness also seems overly evident. Woody, cardboard acsents grow as it sits and don’t develop to help the balance. Hop wise, its pretty beefy and dry, but seems hard to get much profile as it fights with the dry malt too much. The cardboardish flavors didn’t help either. Kinda leans more like a bigger version of an English ESB or pale than anything. Again, the dryness mixing with the semi high sweet promise malting, fevered hop bite, and cardboardish chalkishness surmount to a weird messy tone of dryness and strange bitterness. Body is medium and broadly dry with a grainy creamy centered froth of smashed up cereal and warm thick ice cream. I had a hard time with this one. Something about the flavors did not sit well with me. Balance wasn’t there either. A strange IPA at best.

Like many of the GW brews i have had ,its pretty good stuff, just not great. Good hop flavor, but not as much as i would like for an IPA, not the best on cask either

Amber, light head. Flavor a bit thin, plenty of hops in nose but not much flavor going on, pretty weak stuff.

On cask. copper color with floral hop with a bit of bitterness in the flavor. There is some bitterness there, but not the hop flavor. Not bad.

I am spoiled by the Masala Mama on cask. Having said that, this is a nice subdued sipper of an IPA. Flowery hop and decent body.

Served at the brewpub via cask. I’m starting to think that cask is just not meant for IPA. The hops become too subdued. I just prefer cask beers to be maltier, like a nice porter or stout, IPA or Pale Ale, not so much. Not bad, but I think i’d prefer the non cask version of this.

Cask. Copper color with a thick head. Large orange aroma. Big, floral hop taste with a healthy dosage of orange and Cascade. A little malt sweetness. Incredibly smooth. Tasty!

Amber color. Very floral hop nose. Mellow hop body that let down after the nose. Not bad.

Like so many Great Waters beers, they get really close. This beer has an excellent, full hop aroma, very floral and some herbs. Sadly the flavor is very light, and quite the disappointment after the great aroma. The flavor is of hops and light bitterness. One of their better beers.