Coronado Brewing Hoppy Daze IPA

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

22 oz bottle. Pours hazy golden yellow with a big rocky white head that retains well and leaves some lacing.

The aroma is sweet tropical fruit with some earthy funk.

The flavor is sweet bready malts, some fruit and some funk with a decent peppery bitterness in the finish. The mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with slightly sharp carbonation.

Overall, a nice Belgian IPA. Heavy on the fruity hops with Belgian funk to complement.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Outside of Belgian ipa needing its own style, isn't 9% an imperial? Anyway, rather unassuming filtered golden color. The aroma is citric and piney. Little Belgian, but it's there in the finish after a hoppy punch in the face. Lida chill for these days, but not bad.

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

A bright, clear yellow sunshine in color with a big frothy, loose bubbled whited head rising above. There's good hang time on the head. A fruity nose. Spiced-fruit-yeast tasting. Light, effervescent.

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

A solid pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a three finger thick, pale tan colored head that leaves some lacy, lacing as it slowly subsides in a persistent, tightly beaded manner. The beer is a muddled amber color that shows a hazy, straw-gold color when held up to the light. The aroma, noticeable even as I pour this beer, is laden with fruity hop notes that are no doubt accentuated by fermentation derived esters. This smells of lychee, apricot, kumquats and even a bit of floral tropical fruit notes reminiscent of pineapple and mango. An actual inspection of the nose sees the hop fruitiness take a more citrus edge to it as well as picking up a backbone of pine needles and even a touch of herbal, almost hemp like notes to it. Toasted, pale malt character contributes a solid cracker like grain character to the finish. Honestly, other than the note when I was pouring it, the nose doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of Belgian’esque character to it.

The combination of hops and residual malt sugar contributes to this being quite a sweet seeming beer. It isn’t overly heavy though as it might even said to be fairly light for a beer of this strength. While the front of each sip is dominated by super ripe fruit notes the finish has a nice, solid bitterness to it as well as a touch of menthol like herbal hop character that lingers; neither of these two notes are huge, but do go a long way towards balancing the up front sweet flavors. Some of the menthol like notes I am realizing are actual turpene like phenolic notes of clove derived from fermentation phenols. I think that the hop fruitiness is actually accentuated quite a bit by fermentation derived esters as well, but the Belgian yeast character really plays a supporting role here; yes this is a bit different than a straight up IPA, but it is not so different as to be overtly noticeable that it was fermented with something other than a bland American Ale yeast. This is of course more a testament to the super-hoppiness of this brew rather from the use of a bland Belgian yeast strain; the Belgian character is in here, it is just drowned out by the cacophonous, palate engulfing hop character. The up front hop notes contribute flavors of tropical fruit, lychee, floral peach, orange blossom honey, super ripe tangelo, a touch of pineapple and, as the beer warms a definite note of super ripe melon and floral pear that is purely fermentation derived but still contributes to the over all tropical fruit notes that are found in this beer.

This is just a down right enjoyable brew; it has such a ripe hoppiness to it that I can’t really even find fault that the hops drown out the Belgian yeast character to a large degree. Letting the beer warm up certainly helps (the phenols in the finish become more noticeable and a herbal, slightly vegetal and grassy character is accentuated as well), but ultimately this is all about the hops (as it should be). This is dangerously drinkable for a beer of this of this strength, which is definitely requisite in my book for anything with IPA on the label. This definitely hits the spot for this oft-times hop head, and even has a bit of yeast character to keep the funky freak in me at least slightly interested.

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

This Imperial IPA pours a deep copper gold color from a 22oz bottle. Small to medium sized white foamy head, nice lacing with decent retention. The aroma is fruity (peaches and pineapples) and sweet with some citrusy hops. A medium bodied Imperial IPA. The malts are fruity and sweet, lots of peach and tropical fruit flavors. It’s very Belgian like in the fruitiness and yeasts. The hops are grapefruity and citrusy. Not as much hop bite or bitterness, as one would expect from a double IPA. That might be because of the big fruity sweetness than due to a lack of hops. A little sticky tasting. Good carbonation. Hides the 9% alcohol very well. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

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

Another beer that me and the guys got whilst at The Liar's Club this evening... a beer to kick it up a notch, after having quite a few rounds of the excellent Pizza Port Sharkbite Red. And while I think that this was a slight step down from that highly quaffable brew, this was still not all that shabby, all told.

A touch on the syrupy side, as far as the mouthfeel goes. And once you get past that, this also comes across a bit on the raw side of things, to be honest. Or maybe my palate was simply a bit shocked by this one?

Either way, those are fairly minor faults, overall. A nice hop profile with this one, that makes a point of straying from the ussual suspects, hop-wise. Nice balance of a good variety of hops with this one, and an interesting malt bill, that all ends up giving this beer a respectable amount character all-told.

Not an All-Star IPA, when compared to it's West Coast competitors. But for a change of pace, and for something fresh off the tap at either The Liar's Club or the Coronado Brewing Company brewpub, this is not a bad choice.
//TB

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

Pours with an amber body topped by a thick head with a good amount of lacing. Slightly sweet and malty with notes of tea and a slight grapefruit/citrus note. Medium to full bodied and slightly dry.