Hop Back Taiphoon

Brewed by Hop Back
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
Salisbury, England

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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500ml bottle from Tescos, Andover. Pale straw with a foamy white head and moderate carbonation - looking more like a cheap lager than a bottle conditioned ale; rather sickly, spicy aroma; watery in the mouth, with some vegetable notes, then developing a warming gingery finish.

500 ml bottle. Pale golden color, foamy white head. Peculiar spicy aroma with some sourness. Spicy flavor with a hoppy finish. Light body, medium carbonation. Watery mouthfeel, weak. Different, but not that appealing.

I didn’t mind this one too much, I had a long, hot day and this was refreshing. Clear pale yellow body with an almost lasting head. Not a strong aroma but very pleasant, dont think I have come across lemongrass before but can identify it in this along with the coriander. Aroma carries through to the taste, almost medium body and a little different to most golden ales.

pissy color, but ok aroma. Lots of lemongrass with a nice integration to ale. not bad.

500ml bottle (K Market, Helsinki)
On pouring, a slightly sour and wheaty aroma. Sitting in the glass, it’s more lemongrassy. Mid yellow, asking for a 2, but saved by the small head. Quite watery palate. Taste a bit thin. What’s there is very nice, crisp bitter and aromatic hops - the usual hop back fingerprint - but it’s lacking a malty backbone to hang those flavours on. The soft wheatiness is not a good substitute. Don’t know why I don’t like it so much, I guess it’s just another case of golden ale syndrome. I wish I’d had this with my food an hour ago, as it’s a bit of a waste of time now. Oh, the head turned scummy, so I docked it a point. Dear UK brewers - please stop making gutless golden ales!

A bottle from local K-Market. Slightly sour nose. Pale head. Pale hey coloured. Slightly grassy nose. Slightly sour lemony taste. At the end bitter hoppiness. Slightly waterly.

500 ml bottle. Finland. The name does not lie. It has very interesting lemongrass aroma. The flavour is also lemongrassy with some malt as well.

Bottled BB 10/2009. Pale yellow color, small white head. Lemon grass aroma, some buttery notes. When I poured beer, there was some sulphur at first, like sayravai said. Lemony and grassy flavor. Some lime peel, soap and coriander. Sweetish notes in the finish. Average soapy-bitter aftertaste. Easy going beer.

Bottled. Slightly hazy, paleish golden with floating particles and a small, lacy head. Very distinctively sulphury-gunpowdery aroma with lemony-grassy and spicy notes. Sulphur does fade eventually, though. Flavor is much nicer, with lemon-grassy aromatic hops, and pale maltiness. Moderately bitter, dryish finish. Light to medium body with medium carbonation. Might be ok with spicy food, but unfortunately this bottles aroma was so sulphury, that you can hardly think of anything else.

Bottled (from K Citymarket, Vaasa). Yellowish golden colour, mediumsized white head. Aroma is lemon, wooden hoppyness as well as some mild rubbery notes. Flavour is bigtime grass along with some lemon and mild spicing. Some woodenness and also some metallic notes. Grassyness dominates the flavour.