Hales Mongoose IPA

Brewed by Hales Ales
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Seattle, Washington USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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Pours with a lightly yeast dusted, yet otherwise clear, reddish copper color. It is topped by a frothy, mix of large and small beaded foam bubbles, initially two-finger thick, creamy tan colored head. The aroma has a nice hoppiness to it that at first accentuates the herbaceous pine-like notes. Underneath this is a soft citrus character as well as chewy malt aromatics. The malt notes are a mix of baked biscuits, soda crackers and a light caramelized malt note.

The taste is lightly sweet up front and in fact this light sweetness is found throughout the flavor profile. There seems to just a kiss of diacetyl here, but it is very subtle, even for someone sensitive to it; it adds just a touch of butterscotch to the flavor. This beer has a chewy, malty body to it that, while not heavy, is certainly medium full and somewhat substantial. The hop character is of course the most dominant aspect of this beer, but it was clearly constructed to not be purely hop driven as the malt character comes through quite nicely. This has a solid bitterness to it that is even at times raw enough to be lightly astringent. A mix of menthol and pine notes are predominant, but there is also a light citrus character that makes me think of grapefruit and a hint of bergamot.

This is a nice drinking IPA, it is by no means a hop monster, as there is ample malt character here; though it is by no means even remotely evenly balanced between hop and malt, it is just that one can notice and enjoy the malt character through the dominant hop notes. This fits as a nice late afternoon quaff.

Purchased: <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? Liquors, Tucson, AZ

Half pint at the brewery. Pours a hazy straw color. This is a very refreshing take on the style. It’s lighter bodied, though just slightly. The hop profile is lemony with a little grapefruit bite. Malts are smooth, just providing a little basic sweetness. Really quite good. This is a clean and harmonious IPA.

On tap at Hales: Good floral aroma, respectable hoppiness but not overly heavy with alcohol, a robust palate with notes of dankness that kept strong in opposition to brunch that was full of onion and garlic. A reliable standby. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

One for the people who like a fruity IPA. Floral nose, with a medium body. Stone and citrus fruit. Nice hop backbone, but the fruits are the star of he show here.

From tap at the brewpub. Pours clear and golden amber with a small white head. Aroma is toasted malty and light fruity. Bitter, crisp hoppy, peachy and grapefruity. Lingering fruity and crisp hoppy finish.

Nice ripe citrus hops and aroma. Downside is that bitterness lingers. A very good IPA

bomber. pretty boring slightly below average IPA. It was on the cheap at Freddies....once again, you get what you pay for.

Bottle. Flat tasting India Pale Ale. Hoppiness finally comes thru at the end. Not a very exciting beer.

Bottle shared with JJ. Medium hazy orange with a massive bubbly light orange head. Aroma is quite phenolic, lots of plastic unfortunately, with a little underlying sweetness. Big plastic flavor too, underlying sweet caramel malt, bitter finish. Too much carbo. This did not come together well for me.

On draft. A cloudt orange lightly hopeed for the pnw ipas. Sweet with a crisp flavor. Drinkable.

Pours a cloudy copper with a smallish head. Grassy hops and mild caramel malts on the nose. The flavor is a bit strange -- there’s the tingling on the back of your tongue that normally tells you this is a bitter brew, but the flavor is most certainly heavier on the malts. It’s almost as if someone made an "alpha acid caramel," and used it to brew this beer. Hop flavor starts to show toward the finish, and the aftertaste is almost all hops -- but the progression is interesting, if not a bit weird. Sharply bitter aftertaste, and a good body. Good one from the local guys.