Port City Monumental IPA

Brewed by Port City Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Alexandria, Virginia USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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On tap at brewery. Coppery, yellow color with hazy appearance. Pillowy head that quickly dissipates. Classic piney/grapefruit hop aroma. Hits you at the front.top of mouth and the bottom half of the tongue. Larger carbonation. Pretty average IPA.

Keg pour during Annapolis 5K beer run. Pours amber with white head. Aroma is heavy pine and citrus hops with some biscuit and caramel malts and light fruit esters. Flavor is mostly bitter with just a touch of bready sweetness and some light frui; dry, lightly bitter finish. Medium body and low carbonation.

12oz bottle in a shaker. Pours amber with a thick, off-white head. Aroma of floral and citrusy hops, plus a little pale and caramel malts. Flavor the same with a nice blend of hops and malts. Average texture. Not the best, but not a bad IPA either.

Nice IPA. Lots of citrus and pine in the aroma. The flavor is all hops with just a bit of the malt sweetness in the back ground. Finishes dry and refreshing.

Clear pour, no head, light amber color. Fruit aroma, first sip a bit bitter. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Somehow less aromatic than the range’s pale ale, light fruit and caramel. Rough resinous bitterness. Decent for all that but tastes like an IPA made because you have to make an IPA these days, lacking the good decisions made elsewhere in the range.

Pours cloudy orange with a moderate hop aroma. An unfiltered hop flavor that finishes sweet. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

I poured a 12oz bottle into a tulip glass. There was no freshness date and there was a thick layer of sediment stuck to the bottom of the bottle.

Appearance: Dark copper color that’s quite hazy but still translucent. Forms a large, off-white, frothy head which laces and retains rather well.

Smell: Strong herbal tea and pine park aroma.

Taste: It seems like it’s been a while since I had a good old fashioned "East Coast style" India Pale Ale, though I’m not sure Port City Monumental IPA truly is to that style. Though it’s brewed with Centennial and Amarillo hops, it’s not a citrus or floral bomb in any way. It’s much more akin to green tea or pine needles but without any trace of resin or other sticky/sappy character. There’s plenty of malt here, created for a surprisingly bready taste with a hint of caramel or toffee, though I wouldn’t call it a sweet beer per se.

I believe I was drinking a rather old bottle which might account for the flavors present here. And though plenty bitter, it was more of a refined bitterness that lurks in the background instead of an overt hop character that’s in your face. The 57 IBUs ride shotgun until just before the beer finishes where there’s a smooth hop bite. I detect some citrus flavor in the aftertaste, but it fades quickly. Overall, a decent palate and a beer I’d reckon is much better fresh but still pretty drinkable in the bottle.

Drinkability: This is the type of beer I’d recommend for less experienced drinkers as the balance of the palate, and the low intensity makes it quite comfortable in the mouth. The body isn’t too heavy and the texture is soft rather than crisp with only a slightly dry aftertaste. At 6.3% ABV it seems a little inefficient, but that’s okay because a single serving should suffice.

Bottle->SA. Hazy copper/gold with half inch offwhite head, good lacing. Aroma is citrus and pine hops. Taste is bitter hops, citrus and floral. Decent standard IPA.

Amber colored beer out of the bottle with only the smallest of heads. Thick hop candy resin nose. Bright orange peel, tropical fruit, pineapple and apricot jelly hop tastes over a thick, syrupy toffee sweetness. Long, thick hop candy finish.