Ithaca Cascazilla

Brewed by Ithaca Beer Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Ithaca, New York USA

Clear ruby beer, with a moderate lace - thick caramel malt aroma, with strong notes of rye and caraway, and a strong hop presence - taste of rye bread, seeds, cracked grains - quite bready throughout, with strong hops coming through near the finish - rye bread is pretty much the best descriptor for this beer - it tastes pretty good, though.

(12 oz bottle, obtained in trade with jah noth, thanks Dan!) I do not think this is living up to its billing as "monstrously hoppy". This is a moderately bitter IPA, but not even close to being over the top. But it is nicely balanced by a somewhat roasty maltiness which makes me question the classification of IPA. There seems to be a general sour character to the flavor, though its light enough to be tolerable. Fairly dry on the palate. For whatever reason, the nose is reminding me of the floral, spicy aroma of a Viognier, except that this beer’s aroma is a touch sour too. Dark amber in color. Small off-white head maintains a thick rim around the edge of the glass, and leaves sporadic oddly shaped patterns of lace. You know, with a name like Cascazilla, I guess I was expecting more out of this beer, so I’m a bit disappointed. It’s decent stuff, but just an average, routine beer to me.

Bottle: Pours deep copper with a thin tan head. Big chewy aroma. Sticky and sweet cascade citruses, caramel, toasted vanilla and a cookie hint. Fairly creamy texture, but light to medium bodied. The flavor has some sweet caramel malt giving body, there’s also a mild toasted/dried/crackery malt presence (almost seems like British malts) The hops aren’t really fruity, just somewhat resinous and has a slightly inky bitter finish. Kinda sweet, but tasty and somewhat balanced.

Hoppy bite in the nose, ripe with grapefruit,pine and grass, with undertones of vanilla. Pours deep bourbon brown with little head. Taste is slightly sour hoppyness, with little malt balance.

[1013-20071229] 355mL. Hoppy woodsy resin aroma with a hint of grapefruit sweat. Hazy, dark brown body with a quick foamy off-white head. Bitter woodsy grass hops and malt flavour. Medium body. Interesting.

Bottle shard with and courtesy of blankboy. Neat name and label. Pours more of a dark orange than a self described red. Small bubbly white head. As advertised in the nose! A hop monster, huge lovely hop and malt, some alcohol - balanced nicely! Taste...is a let down after such a promising start, but still decent. Dry and watery at first, there is a good late citrus hop punch that redeems it. The problem is that it has only a little bit of the malt and body promised in the nose. A good little sipper. But throw some more malt in there and this would get to play with the big boys of the style.

Bottle: Courtesy of Rudolph via Secret Santa. Outstanding aroma of fresh cascade hops. Loaded with citrus and just a hint of caramel. Pours a transparent amber with a moderate off-white head with an orange tint that lasts about a minute. Flavor starts rather sweet and has lots of caramel throughout. Moderate sweet citrus up front but only light citrus hops in the finish. With all the hops in the aroma, I really expected much more hops in the flavor. Tastey, but could use more hops for balance. Comes across more like an APA than an IPA.

Via secret santa Summer 2006. The beer pours to a nice glowing red body with a thin white head. The aroma is earthy with grapefruit and caramel malts. The flavor is earthy and grapefruit hops and caramel malts. Sweet. Definitely a hoppy "red". Toasty on the finish. The palate is medium-light bodied and lightly resiny. The beer is warming on the throat. Pretty good, but not a whole lot here.