Palisade Red Truck IPA

Brewed by Palisade Brewery
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Palisade, Colorado USA

Cask Stillage from the Jug at the GABF, Colorado Convention Center 26/09/2009 Big hop aroma. Bronze golden coloured and a little nutty flavoured with a fruity bitter and earthy malt finish.

My head overfloweth! This beer is seriously frothy... be careful pouring it! It has a nice, amber-red color, a fruity aroma, and light hop/fruit flavor. I wouldn’t have guessed this was an IPA had I not known beforehand. The sweetness/fruit is a bit too much if you’re expecting an IPA. If not, be ready for a sweet beer and you’ll enjoy it. I only had a 3oz sample, with fussy baby in hand, so Red Truck didn’t have my full attention.

Bottled. Poured medium orangey-amber with a tall, fluffy, sticky cap of off-white head.. nice lacing as it descended. The aroma picked up slightly tart red fruits, caramel, and some biscuity notes with dusty and abrasive (two different things) accents.. started out good, but didn’t come together in the end. The flavor found the same fruits and caramel at the core with pine and floral bitterness around.. the bitterness became too assertive with too little balance on the back.. tacky on the finish. Light-medium bodied and bitter on the palate.. balance and feel just weren’t there.

Bottle. Pours with a copper to golden color. Some aroams of hops and pine, flavors are subdued, not as hoppy as I would have liked. Seems to have some rather unique flavor profille with strawbeery, stone fruit and some hops in the background. Not bad though.

12oz botttle from Bubble Liquor in Castle Rock. Pours murky copper with thick off-whte head. Aroma is sweet malt, candied sugar, hops, and a little citrus. Flavor is malty with caramel, candied sugar and some hops. Definitly more a malt forward IPA. More of balance APA than a IPA in my opinion. Decent ale just not a good IPA.

Amber color with good head retention. By appearance alone you’d think it’s just another IPA. But a pleasant surprise awaits in the nose. This IPA has an alluring, candied malt with hops aroma. Hmm... Belgian candy sugar? ... very reminscent of an abbey single. On the palate the rather nontraditional candy maltiness is promnent at first but then the hops rush in to tame the sweetness, leaving you with the impression that this beer also has good balance. Very, very drinkable. Medium bodied. In summary, this has to be one of the most drinkable IPA’s out there yet still serious enough to be considered by hopheads as well.

She poured rusty amber which seems to defy the laws of physics and chemistry by sparkling brilliantly in the light despite her decay. More amber in hue than a large majority of American IPAs, her dress is a solid testimony to her approaching sea of malty hops. Her nose is sweet and malty with a vivacious current of damp green grass, freshly picked oranges, and a sprinkling of fallen pine needles. Flowers in bloom release gentle pollen esters into the air which enhance Red Truck’s overall nose. Curious, I dip into her awaiting coppery depths to be met with sweet hop dryness which kicks and squirms in the back of her palate. Dry, bitter green grass snaps and snarls in the finish; all bark and no bite with nary a lingering mark. The more I sup, the more I notice her palate’s predominant and rather simple plan: sweet and malty in the front with light caramelized sugars, sweet breads, and a touch of orange which bleed away into a dry, grassy, bitter explosion before fading away. No floral esters are to be found, despite the earlier tease.

All-in-all, she was more enjoyable than I was expecting. The Red Truck IPA may not win many awards, but I was more than pleased with its balanced split personality which lent to high levels of IPA sessionability. Sometimes I forget that IPAs don’t all have to be big brash hop-bombs and that, at one time, they were the session ale of choice. Well done, Palisade Brewery. Now, about that truck for sale…

In classic IPA fashion this pours a bright semi hazey copper colour. Big creamy off white head. Plenty of those dank hops right up front on the nose. In yo face! Tastey and firm with a certain amount of chewiness. AStringent, grapefruity and slight pine. subtle smooth caramel undertones in this brew."