Sly Fox Chinook IPA

Formerly brewed at Sly Fox Brewhouse
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Royersford and Phoenixville, Pennsylvania USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

Clear orange color with small head and massive lacing. Fruity aroma with good bitter balance. Light finish.

Tap at Hop Devil Grill. Deep amber beer with a thick white head. These beers always look great. Strong resinous hop aroma, pine and fresh grapefruit/orange fruitiness. Toasted malts, grassy/piney hops. Chewy hop flavour throughout. Light orange peel flavour as well. It’s straightforward, but well made... I think this is a hop that works better as part of a blend, but it’s still a solid brew.

POurs somewhat of a coppery hue. Notes of flower and some sweet fruits. The hop hit comes on the palate with dense amounts of the citrus and bitter hops making its way through the beer.

Draught at Pete’s Waterfront Ale House. Poured a fairly dark copper with an off-white head leaving striped lacing. Sweet tangerine and peach nose, with some underlying piney resin aromas. Flavor, as always in these SF IPA projects, starts with a big hop blast. Here, the particular hops were earthy and spicy, with a tart citrus/grapefruit zest base. I love how these IPA projects seem to beat my tongue with hop sticks!. Deep citrusy hop character settles into a pleasingly resiny aftertaste. Nonetheless, there is enough of a firm caramel malt foundation to give the hops center stage, with some flowing into the audience, but still maintain a semblence of order and balance. Not sure how SF quite does this.

Draft at the Phoenixville Brewpub. This one was a little to bitter. A little young. Nice and clear on the pour.

Simcoe was my favorite in 2004 , and now chinook is my favorite for 2005. Has lots of pine and citrus, with some harsh almost smoke-like hints in the end. Flavor is raw with fresh chinook hops- similar to AB without the thick dark crystal malts. I really like the raw harsh bitterness that chinook leaves- probably from the high cohumulone.

On tap at the Sly Fox Brew Pub. Poured a medium and clear amber color with a smaller sized off white head. Aromas of citrus and flowers. Tastes of citrus with a nice grapefruit finish. For an IPA, I liked the bitterness in this one. Some lacing left on the glass.

Poured a clear amber color, with a small, off white head that left light lacing on the glass. Aroma of citrus fruits, notably tangerine, perfume, and grassy hops. Taste was dry and bitter, lots of grapefruit, some metal, almost like a penny. Least favorite from the IPA project to date.