Big Time Bhagwans Best IPA

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Fairly subdued nose. Malty, medium bodied. It seems like a really big malty English pale ale which was american hopped. Really digging it. Bitterness is surreptitious and creeps in like a secret agent. Well balanced and exceedingly drinkable. Right in the middle of a university, I bet this gets drank A LOT!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 9

22oz Bottle Purchased from Brewery April 2007; Sampled August 2007
Pours with an almost clear, amber tinged, copper color and is topped by a frothy, initially three-finger thick, light tan colored head. The aroma is nicely hoppy with just about an even mix between citrus fruit and sharper herbal / pine aromas. Aromas of grapefruit and lychee mix with pine and a touch of menthol. There is also a solid malt character here in the aroma reminiscent of biscuit-like malt and soda crackers. After the initial aromatics, the citrus hop notes start to become the most noticeable component of the aroma.

The taste is sharp up front, it is especially accentuated by how light bodied this beer is (at least for an IPA). Sharp herbal hops and a menthol-like pine character distinctly grip and then lingering on the tongue through the long finish. Wrapped up in this is a persistent bitterness, that while not overwhelming, plays a very big role here. These hop notes give this beer a perceived dryness that is only lightly offset by a subtle malt sweetness and hoppy citrus flavors. Flavors of grapefruit, some notes of lychee and tangelo mix with the sharper, perhaps more dominant green, herbaceous, almost menthol like, pine flavors. As the beer warms a bit and loses some of the initial medium carbonation it starts to pick up some flavors reminiscent of an orange-vanilla cream soda. Malt, while not prominent, play a supporting role here with notes of caramelized malts, biscuit-like malt and a crushed malt flour flavor.

I like how light the body is; it definitely is a bit chewy as it is an IPA after all, but it is quite quaffable. While this is not an earth shattering example of an IPA based on its individual flavors and aromas, it is quite well integrated; bracingly bitter, sharp-leaning with the bitterness / herbal notes / pine character, but softened nicely by malt and citrus notes. This is definitely scratching the hop-fiend side of my psychoses right now.