Mikkeller Stateside India Pale Ale / IPA

Bottle. Best imported IPA I’ve ever had, but doesn’t touch some of the West Coast IPA’s I’ve sampled. Maybe some of the hop edge was lost in the trans-Atlantic trip.

Courtesy dsnowden. Pours a mostly clear amber with a soapy thin off-white head. A lot of sweet caramel on the aroma, but a healthy helping of earthy hop is present. Medium-bodied, lightly carbonated. Taste starts with a nice blend of malt and grassy hops; the malt yields in the finish, but provides a bit of spice for the hops to ride over. Finish is dry. Nice.

Sampled at Mikkeller tasting at West Lake View Liquors. Pours a glowing orange with a small head. Nice nose of caramels, citurs, earthy, floral and pine hop notes. Light caramel flavors and floral citrus. Balanced well with a dry finish. Light body but tasty.

Bottle form Green’s in Atlanta, GA.
Pours clear. On the copper side of orange. Off white head. Nice lace.
Very subdued aroma. I can pick out the aggressive chinooks and grapefruity cascades. I also find some toasted and light caramel malts.
This is a nice exercise in balance. The toast and light cara malts are blended well with a nice hop flavor and pleasant bitter finish.
Medium body. High carbonation. Dry finish.
Not really up to par with most American IPAs, and the price is sort of crazy.

Well, a fine, tasty beer. Not as big on the citrus as I expected but we can’t all get candy (not that I’m always a fan). This actually did remind me of some older versions of West Coast IPAs that I have been sitting on. Very well balanced. The malts are intricate and marry well with slightly resiny hop flavors. The nose has a nice element of cold biscuit dough and some sweet malt that happily doesn’t turn into dessert. As it warms and my snifter rolls, the palate continues to improve. This is a little more of a thinker than many domestic examples. The only gripe? The ridiculous price I paid. Rather thought an indecent picture should have graced the underside of the label. Oh well.

Bottle: Pours a nice orange amber with a big frothy yellowish white head. Aroma is a little weak, picks up just a bit of hops and malt. Flavor is soft sweet malts with a medium hop bitterness and a great amarillo and cascade flavor of oranges and tangerine mostly with just a hint of the grapefruit. Reminds me of a more mellow Alesmith IPA. Quite good but not worth the pricetag in the USA.

A hearty pour generates a stable mid-sized head of very light beige coloration. The body is slightly hazy, a deep orange with amber brown hues. The nose is nice, a blend of easily discernible hop varieties(Chinook, Cascade and Amarillo), with seductive notes of grapefruit, pine, orange, sensual acidic lime juice, lemon, vanilla beans and poundcake. Malt is also formidable, with hints of caramel, bread, toast and alcohol bringing up the rear. Actually, the balance is nice but not enough to disperse or conceal too-menacing alcohol - and this is a mere 7%, not exactly a monster beer. This is as much a display of careful balance as it is a statement of the age of this bottle; it’s not dated, but it’s not as fresh as would be desireable, or so it would seem with no basis for comparison from an older sample. The flavor provides an immediate indicator of the progressing age of the sample: graham cracker notes indicate slight DMS notes that more aggressive hops would likely conceal, due to its very mild nature. This is but a footnote, as the taste is pleasant, semi-sweet malts coalescing with moderate bitterness from resiny hops. Toast notes are prominent, giving this an earthy character. The finish is malty, toasty and moderately bitter, not very clean and certainly not crisp or refreshing, astringency hindering enjoyment. The mouthfeel is evenly carbonated, medium bodied and rather unexciting. Tasty but uninteresting, forgettable even though well done. This is certainly fresh enough to attain an accurate perception of its qualities and flaws.

Pours a burnt orange color. Aroma is carmel and malts, with the hops coming in a bit on the finish, alcohol is apparent. Having not tasted many IPA’s, my expectation of a bold hop aroma is perhaps a bit misguided. Flavor is malty at first yielding to a slight bitterness to close it out.