Rock Bottom Bellevue Hop Bomb IPA

On draught in Bellevue. Didn’t do a full evaluation, but overall an extremely earthy beer with grassy, even pinelike notes throughout. Well balanced with maltiness, not super easy drinking, but quite complex.

Wow, a beer at Rock Bottom that I was pretty damn impressed with. I don’t frequent their places, and was surprised to find this. This is what it is....a freaking hop bomb. Big nug hop on the aroma and in the taste. Backed nicely with just enough sweet malt; doesn’t come close to being balanced. Might go back for a growler tomorrow.

GABF 2006: Clear golden color with a small off-white head. Nice fresh citrus hop aroma. Good backing of caramel malt. Citrus and piney hop flavor with a sweet malt finish. Moderate hop bitterness on the finish.

On tap at Rock Bottom, Seattle. Gold with thin white head. Sweaty sox hop aroma, some grassiness. Thin in mouth, aroma is ok but lacks malt structure. Some intense hop on end, but overall a poor effort.

Draft at the brewhouse. Good medium amber color and a hint of a head for a minute. The nose hits you with beautiful raw, botanically correct (i.e., just like a hop field) floral hop nose. The attack starts with delicious citrus hops and just enough malt backbone to keep it from keeling over with the weight of the alpha acids, then washes to a light clean finish. This is a tasty IPA but not sure it deserved such a high finish at WBC this year.

Draught. Pours an amber orange with a lacy white head. Aroma of oranges, mangos, hop flowers and a bit of spice. Medium body with medium carbonation. The taste starts sweet, and is much like the aroma. This is like drinking whole hops that have been dipped in malt. The finish is fairly quick, but piney crisp. Not quite as hop-bitter as I was expecting, but everything else about this beer says hops have been lavished upon it.

Had this at Elliott Bay. They billed it as being served on "nitro cask", so I have no idea what they meant by that. It poured a hazy amber. The aroma had a lot of tropical fruits like passion fruit and guava. The best way to describe the body would be "corpse". I mean there was no carbonation at all and the beer was 100% lifeless on the tongue. Flavour, what little could come across my tastebuds, was slightly fruity and standard American hops. But there was nothing holding it up. Any malts were lost in the "nitro cask"-ness, as was alcohol and most of the bitterness. Whatever this beer might taste like under normal circumstances, "nitro cask" needs to be one of those experiments long forgotten that we can all laugh about...like next week.

Draught Small whitish head, very fast gone; golden coloured beer. Very hoppy nose; USA hops à la Amarillo. Quite bitter, near metallic hoppy, but malt bill is inexistant. Grassy hops, rather than citrussy. Once again, the RB disease: watery, light MF, lacking desperately basis. All is said.