Coast Range IPA

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

The pour is a orangish/gold color with a white head. Aroma had citrus/hop notes with minimal sweetness. Flavor was pretty much the same although it had some nice citrus hop flavor that was very appealing to me. Finish was clean with some bitterness left on the tongue. You could do alot worse, so this gets a vote of confidence.

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

Orange gold color. Large white foamy head. Aroma is fruity, citrusy and a touch earthy. Medium bodied IPA. Malts are fruity and sweet, lots of citrusy hints. Hops are grapefruity and citrusy. Slightly bitter, somewhat juicy IPA. Again this newer version is MUCH better than the version from a couple of years ago. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is bitter

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 4 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 4

Did I expect this to suck? No. But, at the same time, every other Coast Range beer I've ever had has almost always been a big fat "meh", at best. But, in all fairness, I kept an open mind about this one.

But wow, where to start with this one. How about the throat-clutching dry mouthfeel? As I'm oft' to say, I'm a dry-bitter-ale fan, not a sweet-wet-lager fan. That having been said, this really is a bit above-and-beyond what I typically enjoy.

Very weird combo of hops with this beer. All quite raw and crude in character -- almost a classic case of using a bunch of high Alpha Acid Unit hops exclusively to save money in production. Most hops cost more-or-less the same..., but when you end up using a lesser amount of high AAU% hops to get the same amount of IBUs, you do end up saving some money -- and end up producing something like this: very raw and citric-y course in the hop profile.

This beer saves some face with the malt profile, but really, there's little with this beer that appeals to me. Very rough in the overall drinkability, IMO.

This gives West Coast IPAs a bad name, and can never be held up as any sort of example of what an IPA (West Coast, East Coast, Canadian, English, Kiwi, whatever) really should end up tasting like.

If I had a few more bucks, and a few more other beers in my `fridge, I'm sure I'd simply cut-to-the-chase and dump this down the drain.

Music: Lake Of Tears' "Headstones".
//TB