The Kernel India Pale Ale Topaz

Brewed by The Kernel
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
London, England

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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Sample at Borefts Beer Festival 2012. Pours a hazy and golden beer with a white head. The aroma is malt and hops with citrus and grapefruit. The flavor follows the nose. The palate is bitterness. Overall an average beer.

Bottle at home, 18th November 2012. Pours a clear straw colour, nice frothy white head. Aroma is sweet tropical fruit salad, taste is pine resin, orange some sweet berries, biscuity malt back bone, well rounded and balanced. Another nice kernel IPA.

33cl bottle. Pours hazy reddish orange with thin white head - loads of lacing throughout. Aroma is citrus & tangerine led, some peach, but of grapefruit, floral and herb notes - lovely. Taste is a nice waxy orange hit, pithy grapefruit, lovely sweet tangerine comes through as does the peach note; interesting herbal character becomes clear as the beer warms. Light caramel sweetness backs up the tasty hop hit. Very well balanced. Big fan of this - don’t know too much about the Topaz hop, but certainly will look more into it.

UPDATED: FEB 2, 2013 29th September 2012
Borefts Beer Festival IV. Day 2. Hazy gold beer, little white head. Light crisp palate. Semi dry. A little creamy malt. Fresh tangerine pith. Mild and slightly earthy grapefruit. Hop spice. A little hop skunk. Dry finish with a hop sting linger. Refreshing.

330 ml bottle bought @ beermerchants.com. Pours hazy reddish golden with a frothy white head that slowly dissipates while leaving some trace on the glass. Smell is sweet, fruity, earthy and hoppy fresh with biscuits, grapefruit juice, moss, lemon balm, dark grapes, overripe pineapple, moist soil, lemon hard candy, pine, mango, lemon zest and moist tobacco. Taste is sweet, bitter, fruity and earth with crackers, grapefruit juice, mineral rich moist soil, moss, lemon zest, resinous wood, gum drops, lemon balm, pine, biscuits, thai basil, peaches, pineapple and hints of metal. Mouthfeel is round, slightly crisp, tiny oily bitter and medium bodied. Finish is slightly sweet, bitter , fruity and herbal with crackers, grapefruit rinds, grape skins, moist soil, lemon balm, pine, resinous wood, tropical fruit hard candy, thai basil and hints of dill.

Bottle at home in London. Pours a very un-Kernelly clear, red-gold with a charming, white bubbly foam head. Aroma is more classic Kernel, plenty of juicy fruits, some dry citrus, melon, grapefruit, perhaps some lightly toasted bread. Light to medium sweet flavor, some sweet berries, toasty pale malts, dry grapefruit, some dry leaves, hints of dirt. Light to medium bodied with fine carbonation. Fairly dry on the finish with some mild, resinous pine, more dry citrus fruits, a bit of lingering earth and grass. A very solid IPA, though not on the same level as most Kernel IPAs.

330ml bottle. Misted, brassy orange with a slim but tenacious white foam. Aroma pure hop beauty: all 4 tropical Starbursts at once, mandarin, star anise, pineapple, lychee. Reminds me of Sorachi. Bright, brilliant, tropical hop flavour of Fruit Salad chews, melon, lychee and soapy flowers bittered with lingering husk and grapefruit. Anyone who doesn’t think this is a brilliant expression of hops is either; i) a mentalist, ii) tipping the bits in, iii) not getting it fresh enough or iv) sharing a 330ml bottle with 10 Danes. Fucking beautiul.

Bottle at the Kernel. It pours clear amber, with a medium white head. The nose is earth, dough, wood and a touch of varnish. The taste is earth, spice, assertive bitterness, resinous, wood, leather, straw and some grass, with a long, very bitter finish. Medium body and average carbonation. Quite different to usual Kernel IPAs- a lot more earthy notes and less citrus. Well made, but just not as drinkable as many of their other IPAs.

Boreft Beer Festival 2012. Hazy golden with a small white head. Aroma dominated by kiwi and tangerine. Sweetish fruity flavour with a nice bitter finish

Bottle from brewery. Colour is tawney amber/orange, small white head. Nose is delightful soft tropical fruit mango and pineapple and some sticky sweet malt barley sugar. Taste is a little more subtle with the malty sweet barley sugar, pine, grapefruit citrous hop, minerally but not so much of the tropical fruity. Quite sticky sweet caramel/barley sugar malt.