Magic Hat Hi.P.A.

Brewed by Magic Hat Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
South Burlington, Vermont USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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I can remember a time when I didn’t like IPAs. Oh, that was many moons ago! I’ve finally come around. This brew is damn tasty. Definitely worth a try. Deep orange hue with a nice head. Good taste, nice alcohol content - what more could you want? Plus, the artwork is pretty trippy...man. It is fun to admire and those who see you holding it are likely to remark, "Whoa, cool artwork on that one!"

Bottle. Good nose of grassy fresh hops, dank almost, some honey and birch and pine scent as well. Crisp and moderately light on the tongue, some grassy honey flavors, light and refreshing, could almost convince me that it’s a wheat hybrid at times except for the tangy bitterness. I thought this was a pretty decent IPA, meaning that at the very least it satisfied my hop cravings.

Crunchy pine and grapefruit hops hanging on the palate, culminating in a dry bark ending...Malt is non-consequential it seems, this a hop quaffer...As pleasantly sense numbing and thirst quenching as Rogue's Brutal Bitter...

Pours slightly turbid dark straw with a medium, creamy white head, some floaties, and moderate lace. Aroma of hops, malt, fruit, pine, spice. Tastes hoppy, with some malt, fruit, and spice hints. Palate is medium, with a slightly dry finish. Not quite as balanced as I crave with IPAs, but very good nonetheless.

I’m surprised I hadn’t rated this. Poured healthy medium orange with a creamy, well-retained cap of beige head. The aroma picked up apricot, citrus, and a little piney hoppage over a simple, but sufficient sweet caramel base. The flavor was more malt-centric than anticipated with a tough-to-ID bitterness that hit right at the back.. caramel again at the core with pine and fruity bitterness through the middle.. lots of sweetness along with the aforementioned bitter hit on the finish. Medium-bodied with just OK balance on the palate.. higher carbonation.. I’d drink another, but I wouldn’t be too excited about it.

Bottle. Pours amber with a medium sized head. Very nice lacing. Mild hops in the aroma. Hops take a while to materialize out of the sweet goopy malty mess. This one is muddled and all off-kilter. Too bad.

Amber colour, with a nice white head and some excellent lacing. Big foresty (not really pine) hop aroma. Nicely bitter, my initial assessment was that it lacked enough malt to back it up, but subsequent samples later at the Mondiale change my assessment which earned it another point for the flavour. Finish is a touch on the thin side but not so much as to be overly distracting. Very nice beer. Mondiale 3T (Radek/Tiggmtl).

This one resembles an IPA, but has a weak hop profila and a dominant sugary malt profile. Way below average.

Bottle. Straw with a coarse bubbled, tufting head festooning the glass. Neat hop Punk IPA juiciness on the snout; grapefruit, passion fruit, tomato vine, lemon and lime wine gummage with a crumb of biscuit. Lean and spiky with a big slug of puckering, tonic water and grapefruit juice bitterness mellowed slightly by stewed tea, liquorice and honey-dabbed biscuit. Drinks like Punk- a big welcome surprise after the tipper that was #9.

Hippie Alert label!Appearance is a pretty appealing cloudy amber with a decent white head at first that diminishes very fast to become a ring around the glass. Aroma is strange, weird hopping. I don't know if that's typical to Columbus character, but there was a "litter" feel in the nose, increasing as it warms. It was not totally unpleasant, just unexpected. The mouthfeel is creamy, a medium body that slips through the mouth naturally. The hop attack is honest, floral, but it didn't propose enough malt balance to top its class. An okay session beer that seems to be made without any special efforts.