Scotch Irish Sgt. Majors IPA

Pours amber, cloudy with an off-white head. Aroma is citrus fruits, hop and a bit of yeast. Flavours are mostly malt - so strong that it masks everything else. Fairly bitter finish.

Big buzzy hops dazzle the palate and nostrils with aromatic audacity. Decent body... the countering sweetness does not ’wimp out’ the serious hops. Surprisingly smooth feel for an elixir so defiantly terpene, bitter and resinous. I am no big hophead, but this beer has ten times the character of many Micros. If you can deal with it. 8/4/8/4/15 ADDITIONAL LATER COMMENT This beer has endured some radical changes after Heritage took over the name and the brewing responsibilities. After some scary results - way too dark malts, nearly flat beer - the Sarge appears to be surfacing with a real identity that is no longer in crisis. A different beer than noted earlier, with fatter malts and more ’embedded’ hops. When this is on, it is more balanced than ever. Man are Heritage inconsistent though.

2005 bottle, I assume, maybe late 2004, from Sammy, consumed 6/5/04. Standard copper-orange color, with big off-white head, decent retention, and tons of lacing, as it is unfiltered, which is encouraging to see. No real lacing, though it could be the glass. Nose of grapefruit rind, loose-leaf paper, lemon, no caramel. A bit of dry grainy malt. Begins with dry pale malt, which attempts to back the huge hops bitterness and dryness. Perfumey flavor, light dough and grapefruits mix together. Zesty, but natural carbonation. Medium body. Grapefruit lingers. Some toasty grains. Gets a bit chewy after it has breathed. Strange, as this one is ridiculously bitter, but I really enjoyed it, in part due to the low filtration, no doubt.

Bottle: Poured a clear medium brown color ale with a huge bubbly white head with average retention. Aroma is quite dominated by bitter hops. Taste is also dominated by bitter hops leaving not enough places for floral hops to really come out. Good but lacking a few thing to be great.

341ml brown bottle from gilvanblight. Deep gold in colour. Thick pillowy cap. Strong hop aroma - orange accented and slightly herbal. Nicely malty and packed with quenching hop bitterness. Nice session strength IPA that I wish I could purchase regularly.

Light orange in colour with aromatic notes of pine, bready malts, and grapefruit. This one’s got some great assertive bitterness upfront with some leafy/hoppy flavor notes. The bread-like quality is also apparent on the palate, but unfortunately much of the citrus fruit element disappears. A good beer that needs some minor adjustments to take the next step. Thanks Lubiere!

341ml. bottle. Light amber color with a small white head. Piney/citrusy hop aroma with some malt in the background. Hop dominated flavor, mostly pine, but come citrus. Good bitterness, but not enough malt for balance. Quite good though.

It’s an attractive beer, with a clear medium amber (almost copper body) topped by a dense, thick soapy head. The aroma is actually more malt than hops in my sample, and the malt carries a distinct resemblance to saltine crackers. There’s a bit of Christmas tree needles from the hops. The flavor is more of that cracker malt mixed with a bitterness that doesn’t seem to meld with the malt very well. The beer seems a bit out of whack to me. The hops are definitely in the IPA range for the bitterness, but seem to be lacking in hop aroma and flavor other than bitterness.