Otter Hoppy Otter IPA (Bottled)

Brewed by Otter
Style: English Strong Ale
Honiton, England

Serve in English pint, Snifter

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Bought because my girlfriend loves otters. Pours dark orange with a tan ring. Nose is hoppy through my stuffy nose. Taste is sweet and resiny and lightly hoppy. This is a good English IPA, so different and more restrained than their American Brethren.

Courtesy of Tom. Hazy amber body with a small white head, fading. Herbal and floral nose with biscuit and cracker. The flavor is lightly sweet, light to moderately bitter with caramel, herbs, light citrus and dough. Medium body is round with moderate carbonation.

50cL bottle, courtesy of peregrinari. Thanks, Tom! Pours a slightly hazy orange-amber color; thin white head with solid fine-bubbled lacing. Pleasant oranges and earthiness and caramel in the aroma; a pleasant hop bitterness and citrus zest. Medium mouthfeel: pleasant earthy hops and red fruits and biscuity notes; solid fruit and orange character at the core; tasty, balanced beer. Medium finish, showing oranges, earthiness, and sugar.

Bottle brought from Georgia by a friend. Pours a deep dark orange color with a frothy, white head. Aroma is citrus, floral, and almost sweet malt. Flavor is rich, hop bitterness, with a lasting finish. Great beer.

Amber colored with a beige colored head. Smell is caramel, hops, and alcohol. Medium body. Taste is malts, caramel, hops,. ok but nothing special.

500 ml. Copper-brown with a medium and lasting head. Earthy spiced marshmallow and toasted pecan aroma. Flavor is earthy wood, slight molasses, toasted nut, slight orange and cocoa. Near medium body is smooth and dry.

Medium hazy orange amber, very slight head faded fast. Aroma is significantly hoppy, loads of citrus and pine, very much in a Pacific Northwest style. Some caramel oreinted malts on the nose as well. Flavor is not nearly as hoppy as the nose, almost as if they skimped on that addition in favor of focusing on late aroma hops. Lots of caramel and slightly fruity malt flavors with some citric and pine hops on the finish in a backup role. A touch sweet. Interesting twist on the style overall. Not bad.

50 cl bottle from Plaza Liquors - Pours a hazy deep amber color with a 1/2 finger thick off white head. Faint spotty lacing. Aroma is primarily floral hops with a touch of esters. Flavor is lightly sweetened toasted malt, light esters, and hops. Medium body. Nothing fancy, but a drinkable IPA.

20080422 50cl bottle picked up at Spirits in Red Bank. Copper color with thin film of white head. Aroma is at first a pleasant burst of pine and citrusy hops, a bit floral, and pretty promising. But then it goes dramatically downhill. I’m sitting here at the desk looking around for the garbage smell. I check the kitchen and smell nothing, thought maybe the dog had gas, nope and nope. Realized the smell was mostly around my desk, picked up the glass to look at the color again, it stuck to the coaster and spilled bit on my hand, I wiped the beer from my hand onto my pant leg and then realized, ’Whoa, it’s this beer that smells like garbage!?’ So I stick my nose down into the glass and, whew, there it is! Citrusy, floral, piney, and freakin’ nasty old pea soup. Oh, that’s not good. Well, I’ve got to push through this and maybe it gets better so I take a sip. Again, the front if filled with nice enough hops, pithy, a bit biting with a grapefruit pithiness that I quite enjoy but then, Yowza! There’s that icky, vegetal, rotten flavor, right along with the now retronasal nastiness of a bad mouthful of rotten veggies that just won’t go away. Lame, lame, lame, because, like so many UK bottled beers, this one was not cheap and now it’s going down the drain. Blech. The off flavors are not at all dominant, but so present and so nagging, they’re just utterly impossible to ignore. After enjoying yet another Twisted Thistle last night, I really wanted to love this one. Bummer.

Bottle. Aroma has more malt and mellow ipa aroma like those from across the pond. Amber body with off white head. Flavor didn’t have the crispness to it. Sweet malt more than the hoppy citrus. Somewhat watery and acidic. Alright on the palate. Maybe best if paried with food.