Kuhnhenn India Pale Ale (American IPA)

Brewed by Kuhnhenn Brewing
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Warren, Michigan USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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Thanks to Pailhead for sending this delicious beer my way. a wonderfully crafted beer with superb floral hops and a creamy caramel malt sweetness. Well done Kuhnhenn’s!

Probably so much better on draft. This is average IPA, meaning damn solid beer. As an IPA, it delivers everything expected. Meets, but does not exceed, expectations. You wouldn’t be missing out on your IPA experience if you missed this beer, but you’d still be missing out on an IPA. It’s hard to do a bad IPA; all you need is to put a little effort into it like these guys did and you get a passable result.

There is one thing unusual about this: an exceptionally creamy mouthfeel.

I put my nose right up to the bottle mouth as I usually do, to get the aroma in its most concentrated form. For as long as it lasted, it was quite nice, quite good. And then it tailed off drastically.

Sampled on draught @ Kuhnhenn Brewing Company in Warren, Michigan. Amber color. Fantastic hop aromatics, piney and resiny with ruby red grapefruit, along with the malt, which smells sugary and sweet, caramel and honey laden. Big, bodacious, sugary caramel and toffee malt coating with a truly enjoyable onslaught of hop flavors. More piney and sprucey flavors than anything else, like taking a bite out of a jungle in Honduras. A wonderful IPA. Oh If I lived by Kuhnhenn this would surely be my growler of choice.

Did not relize that I had purchased these bottles only 1 day before the drink by date so I just had to drink them. I never exectley knew what raters ment by soapy but this bew tastes soapy. It is very drinkable but the hops are just not bitter enough for some reason.

(12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with Eyedrinkale, thanks Mike!) The nose is floral, fruity, hoppy and a bit soapy, but what’s immediately jumping out at me is the spiciness. It’s still pretty light, relative to the other aromas, but still unmistakeable. The flavor follows up in similar fashion, fruity, floral, sweet, modestly hoppy and a bit spicy. Pale malts are more or less buried. Medium bodied, a bit heavy and sticky on the palate, and so the sweet fruitiness keeps the palate from achieving any crispness whatsoever. Ruddy amber colored body topped by an off-white head that just won’t quit, maintaining a thinned, but complete layer throughout the session. This is okay, but just not grabbing me.

Bottle acquired in trade with Pailhead (thanks!). Brewed on 04-04-05 and best before 07-04-05. Poured a medium and cloudy amber color with virtually no head. Lighter aromas of mainly flowers with some light citrus. Tastes of flowers, sweet malts and light pine. Has a medium sweet to a lighter bitter balance.

Yellow orange color with tinges of red. Medium sized foamy white head. Very citrusy hop aroma. Citrus and floral hop characters combined with a resinous mouthcoat. Syrupy 2 row pale malt mouthfeel with hop astringency.

UPDATED: AUG 24, 2005 8/24/05 Re-rate: Special release at GTM. Cask version. Fresh hop, floral aroma that is slightly off (7). Dark orange in color, thick, with some floaties. Not a very nice head. Large bubble, frothy (cask-like) (4). Very nice flavor; for a cask it is very flavorful. A little tart with good hoppy mouthfeel (8). Palate (5). Overall (16). Ratings are very similar to my original, bottle version rating. 6/6/2005: Wow! I could smell the floral hoppiness of this brew before I even put my nose up to the glass. Some pine. Lovely. Murky amber in color; avg. sized off-white head. Mostly dimishing. Excellent lace. Initial mouthfeel is excellent. Piney spruce. Well balanced with sweetness. A really nice IPA. Eric Kuhnhenn clearly knows what he is doing. Gets a little thinner when it warms, but still very good.

The body is a birght and ligth orange. The aroma is oranges and vanilla with clove spice. The taste is burnt toast and pine. It is also slightly soapy with a hint of tobacco. There is also some biscuit. A little bit of a let down. The aroma is solid, but the taste does not back it up.

On tap. Golden pour with a long lasting white head - creamy and thick. Orange/grapefruit hop aroma. Honeyish sweet malt beneath lots of US hops.