Mishawaka Hop Head

Formerly brewed at Mishawaka Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Elkhart, Indiana USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

Pours a dark copper with medium white head. Aroma is earthy and sweet, lots of caramel. Flavor is malty, lots of dark crystal and even has a touch of chocolate in there. Hops are really all bitterness and very resiny, just a touch of citrus. Should’ve been called Malthead.

Pours dark copper with a half-inch head of rocky foam. A persistant skim coat displays some decent retention with some smeared lacework. Aromatics are a balance of malt and hops. A smidge of chocolate is present as well, and the hops are subdued. Traces of citrus and pine, but certainly nothing floral or pungent. Medium bodied and slightly chewy. Somewhat crisp and tacky. Malt-forward on the pallet, with more cocoa and some piney hops follow through. Bitterness is firm and fairly substantial. Here again, the hops are present, but are overcome by the malt character. Finishes with some lingering minerally bitterness, roasted malt, bakers chocolate, and a tinge of pine sap. To my tastes, the name "Hophead" is certainly a misnomer. No freshness dating on the bottle, but I was told by the gentleman I bought them from that they had just come in.

Bottle. Gusher. Poured copper with a huge white head that leaves big chunky lacing. Aroma similar to tea with a malt background. Pretty dull flavor. Mainly malts. High carbonation. Light body and tingly on the tongue. Possible bottling problem. (Rating from June ’07)

Bottle courtesy of stfun. Pours copper with a white head. Smells of dough and tea. Tastes resiny with some cookies and hints of pepper. Odd for the style.

This one is a bit of a let down. Hops weren’t as big as I anticipated and the flavor was more metallic and bitter than it should have been. Maybe I got a bad bottle but it seemed a tad skunky too. The appearance was a impressive red - brown coloration. Not sure what else to say about this beer I got bored drinking it.

12 oz. Bottle - Pours a golden yellow-orange with foamy white head. Aroma is a light hoppiness (I suspect this is a little older and some of the aroma hops have died down) - Taste is bruising and bitter hops - damn! That’s really about it, not much else to it, but body is leaning towards medium and I like that - as a lot of the very big IPAs and IIPAs are surprisingly light-bodied (Hoptimus and Hopslam come to mind). Overall biting and bitter and probably more balanced when fresh - but nice none the less.

12 oz bottle from party shoppe in goshen, IN. Clear orange with large white head. Very large american citrus hop aroma with some grass and sweet malt. Nice pine, grass, citrus hop flavor with very dry grapefruit and malt. Medium body and nice card. Very and still very well hopped.

Poured a hazy straw color. HUGE fluffy white head that just won’t quit. Looks like a rootbeer float. Decent hop aroma with a hint of sourness. Nice hop flavor. Good bitter finish. A bit unbalanced but a decent brew.