LaConner India Pale Ale (Bottleworks)

Formerly brewed at LaConner Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
LaConner, Washington USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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Thanks to CaptainCougar for this great trade!! Well, I planned my strategy. After letting this one settle from the trauma of the traveling involved, I made my plan. I observed what appeared to be the left overs of one, maybe two, moderately sized hops cones in the bottom of the bottle. I thought, "I’ll open this one carefully and pour it like a bottle conditioned homebrew with a big, loose yeast sediment in the bottom." I got my glass ready and proceeded with the plan. As soon as I released the cap, out gushed a big spurt of beer with a large chunk of hops flower riding the foam. I poured enough in the glass to take care of the foam over and went looking for a strainer after seeing what was in the glass. This was well carbonated to say the least, and a hazy orange color. The hops particles were a limp brownish green color as I anticipated they would be. While I was straining the beer, the aroma became very evident without even putting the glass to my nose. Smelled like when we hombrew and get out the bags of hops. Aroma of fresh hops. Good malt flavor, hops are very strong, a little out of balance and slightly coarse. The chunks of hops stuck in your throat were against the palate (HAVE YOUR STRAINER READY WHEN YOU OPEN THE BOTTLE!!!!) Good IPA but a little overrated IMO. I'm glad I got to try this 'cause I've wondered about doing this for my hombrew. Don't do it. I've also had "Randalized 90 min" and that's the way to go IMO.

INDIA PALE ALE--12 OZ. BOTTLE. 1997--6.00%ABV. (2.5 / 5.0) Sampled 1/10/1998. 1998--6.50% ABV. (4.0 / 5.0) Clear pale golden color. Nice floral hop front. Lightly carbonated body is slightly sweet and on the thin side. Hop bitterness is strong in a very dry finish. Good use of hops, but could be bigger. Sampled 2/14/1999. 1999--6.50% ABV. (4.5 / 5.0) Clear light amber color assumes orange juice appearance with pellicle. Big floral hop front leads to creamy rich sweet crystal malt body. Spicy earthy end almost balanced by sweet body and pellicle. Sampled 8/8/1999. 2000--7.00% ABV. (4.5 / 5.0) Rich smoky floral earthy hop front. Slightly hazy rich golden color. Rich sweet caramel malt body continues earthy floral flavor. Big hops. Floral takes over at finish. A wow hop brew. Sampled 5/31/2000. 2002--6.00% ABV. (4.25 / 5.0) Rate Beer Club Selection. Tight sediment. Hazy rich amber color. Light head. Medium lace. Rich earthy floral hop front. Balanced crisp malty sweet creamy yeasty caramel fruit body. Clean mild earthy citrus hop spice bitter end. Sampled 10/9/2002. 2003--7.00% ABV. (4.75 / 5.0) Light sediment. Lightly hazed rich thick golden color. Rich floral earthy big malty hop front. Rich creamy hot sweet caramel body. Thick texture. Mellow yeast sediment. Earthy rich hop end. Lacy light head. Sampled 2/27/2003.

12 oz. bottle; thanks BillKismet for breaking this out; the legendary hop cone…haha; decanted and poured slowly revealing a muddy dark orange with no head; musky, moldy, citrus hop aromas that are surprisingly floral and pleasant; smells much better than it tastes at this point with some ethanol and stale malt; still remains quite bitter and dry; while kind of a novelty to drink this IPA at this age; the nose was quite nice after all this time

Name: India Pale Ale (Bottleworks)
Date: July 06, 2005
Mode: Bottle
Source: Trade
Appearance: opaque orange, big off white head, chunks of whole hops floating on top
Aroma: fresh hop aroma with a touch of sweetness
Flavor: big bitter hop flavor, picks up some sweetness in and a malt backbone after the hops are strained out, bitter finish lasts forever
Overall: too much gimmic, the extra long dry hopping makes it too bitter
Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 2/10; Palate: 2/10; Overall: 5/20
Rating: 1.9/5.0
Score: 4

The score was calculated based upon the notes and an old scoring system.

12-oz. Thanks BillKismet! I had given up on the idea of ever rating one of these. Pours cloudy golden-amber with a white ring of foam. Earth, flowers and pine aroma. Medium body, nearly still. Taste of mango, caramel and earth. Amazing for it’s age - I’m spotting it a couple of points on overall impression just for being an IPA senior citizen. This had to be awesome when it was even remotely fresh.

Seriously BillKismet, thanks dude, what a treat. No. Way. Jasmine and herbal nose, gusher, lots of head. Very chewy, you can taste the hop pellets, though the bitterness has fallen off to the floral foundation. Never thought I’d be able to have one of these.

Thank you so much BliiKismet, I wasn’t sure if I was ever going o get to try this one,definitely a pleasant surprise. Matt knew what this one was going to do, we had a strainer ready and waited for the gush, I thought for sure there would be oxidation and loss of some of the hop aroma, but the kitchen was instantly filled with an awesome citrus fruit aroma. Great hop bitterness and hop flavor backed up by a nice sweet maltiness. The transistion from initial hop bitterness to flavor was near spot on. Awesome!

12-oz. Wow, wow, wow, thanks BillKismet! Can’t hardly believe I get to try this. Murky dark orangeish amber. Towering gushy head. Huge herbal, slightly buttery/spicy nose. Creamy medium body. Beautiful floral fruity hop with doughy malt on the mid-palate. Awesome, awesome beer, magnified all the further by thinking we’d never get our hands on any.

2004 - This is absolutely one of the most fantastic things I have ever had the pleasure of drinking. The hops are way intense, way more than anything else I had experience at the time, with an herbal stinging bitterness almost making my tongue and lips nimb, definitely tingly. The malt backbone does a great job of stnading up to this onslaught but it really gets overpowered, but you still get a lot of chewy caramel maltiness flooded with citrusy hop goodness.

12 oz. bottle has " DH " hand written on the green cap. Amber colored with a huge head that took several minutes to settle. Massive smell of grapefruit and pine tree resins. Has a malt sweetness which mingles nicely with the huge hop flavor. Chewing on the hops will kill your taste buds. My guess is cellaring this beer for twenty years won’t diminish the hop flavor. Sept 4/2004

Bottle thanks to kyzr poured threw a strainer a hazy yellow color with a huge foamy white head. The aroma was floral citrus hops and a small amount of caramel. Flavor had a smooth bitterness along with a nice body of caramel and citrus. The finish was slightly dry and bitter. There was some signs of age, but not much as expected.