Toppling Goliath Naughty 90

Brewed by Toppling Goliath
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Decorah, Iowa USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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Sampler pour on tap at the brewpub (Decorah, IA). Pours a good deep amber, some orange glow, good hazy body. A grothy offwhite head atop films well, laces ok. Good frothy lacing, body a bit darker. Sunset amber edges. Aromas are gentle biscuity, sweeter toffee and caramel. Some dry florals, earth, good oaky kick. Vanilla, caramel, gentle toastiness. Initial is oaky, vanilla and toffee, sweeter front end with a bit of cocoa, toffee, and sweetness. Middle shows a bit of body, sweetness, dry cocoa element latches on. A mellow dry hop element, oak is prevalent as we move on. Sticky and sweet, the oak gives a lot of toasted coconut onto the backend. Lots of coconut, oak, vanilla. A bit sweet, the body isn’t big. Coconut, a bit of cocoa, toffee and carmelization. An oddity, lots of oak for me. Ok. Flavorful, I guess is a good term for this one.

Growler, thanks Chad! Pours murky brown, nice tan head. Nose is...not IPA-like at all. Huge oak notes, toffee, a touch of vanilla, light tannins. Sweet on the front end, but the hops settle in nicely after a few seconds. Really, really interesting beer.

Draft. Tried in the sampler and glad I did as I am not sure I could put down a whole pint of this. Murky brown color with a slight head. Very oaky notes in the nose along with some roast, and caramel. Hops notes are there but play second fiddle to oak. Medium chewy mouthfeel. The oak dominates this flavor profile. It’s decent but tough to drink a lot of compated to their other offerings. I appreciate the style and history in this one but prefer todays IPAs.

Tap at Toppling Goliath. The beer pours to a murky chestnut glowing body with gold hues and a white head. The aroma is cocoa puffs or coco krispies. Flavor is a lot like a creme brulee with a ton of oak. A little bitter, but lots of cereal grains help to balance. The palate is medium bodied and clean. I liked this one a lot too.

Tap at the brewpub. Goddamn this is interesting! Aroma is coffee grounds. Taste is rich chocolate. This is frickin cool.

On tap. Poured medium amber with a creamy off-white head. The aroma picked up bready, fruity, and caramel sweetness accented by dusty earth and grassy character. The flavor was sweeter, with toffee and toasted medium-skinned fruits at the core.. some fruity and perfumey bitterness around. Medium-bodied with nice balance on the palate.. again on the malty side.. easy-drinkin’.

on tap-pours hazy amber with an offwhite head. Aroma is medium malt-caramel, peat, then chocolate. Taste is medium malt-caramel, peat/wood, then chocolate.

Pours copper color with a big soapy white head some lacing. Smells of graham crackers some wood notes and a hint of toffee. Avg palate. Flavor is hints of toffee a dry oaky finish some grass an odd tart that I ca t quite place like a non lemony lemon grass. Decent.

8/10/12. On tap at the GTMW pre-party. Hazy amber pour with a nice khaki head. Light oak aroma with caramel and earthiness. HUGE oak flavor with bits of toasted caramel... it makes it taste like peanuts and popcorn. Eh.

Pours a hazy deep orange with a well retained head and lots o’ lace.

The aroma is lots of toasty oak, plenty of nuttiness, light chocolate and very mild on earthy hops. Very aromatic and rich smelling.

The flavor features lots of toasty oak and nuttiness, the beer is mildly bitter and has a good earthy hop expression. The beer is very rich tasting and shows some more fruit forward hoppiness as the beer warms a bit.

Totally outside the box, hardly recognizable as an IPA, even an oaked IPA... but this matters very little in this case. We’re not dealing with some brewery that doesn’t know how to make IPA, this is a riff on the style, and a damned tasty one at that.