Full Sail Son of Spot IPA

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

Rating from 2002. Tasted at brewery. Maybe only place available. Medium gold color. A medium bodied ale. Malty and fairly aggressively hopped. Good balance. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly bitter. Nice refreshing hoppy ale.

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

Pours with a slightly cloudy copper body topped by a thick, off-whtie head with some lacing. It’s bitter and piney from the hops with a slight medicinal note and am undeerlying malt note. Medium bodied, smooth and a touch dry.

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

A very nice, refreshingly hoppy IPA that for some reason doesn't get much attention in the circle of beer geeks. I particularly enjoyed the incredibly intense juicy citrus hop aroma. Fresh orange juice, grapefruits and lemons are the most pronounced. There's also a secondary perfumy hop character as well. Very nice nose. Appearance is a darker orange color, with a nice fluffy white head. Flavors are citrusy hops, sweet malts, with a fading spicy hop character that I wish was a bit more prominent. Better as it warms, the spiciness does come out more. Overall, this is very tasty IPA. Maybe if it was sold in 12 oz bottles, it'd be a little more....alluring to buy. But as it's sold only in 22oz bottles, some might get a bit put-off.

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

This one poured a copper color. The aroma consists of some perfume notes as well as some oranges and lemons. The flavor is rather bitter with more lemons and oranges. Some pine also exists in this one. Overall this was a good IPA.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 6

Pours with a fairly hazy, amber tinged, dark copper color. It is topped by a frothy, initially fat-two-finger thick, tan colored head. The aroma is certainly hop focused with resinous notes of pine, lots of herbal notes and a substantial citrus character. The citrus notes remind me of grapefruit, tangerines, some notes of lychee and even some freshly zested orange zest full of citrus oils. As my nose gets used to the aromatics the resinous side of the hops starts to become the secondary aromatic note to the citrus, whereas in the beginning it was the opposite. Hints of caramelized malt character peeks through the hop aromatics and becomes a bit more noticeable as a malty, soda cracker like, almost dusty grain note if you really dig around towards the end. I like that the aroma is a nice mix of citrus, resinous notes with even a touch of malt character; it makes for an interesting olfactory experience. The resinous character does lean a bit towards citrus oil though, but more on the aggressive side of things.

Quite well carbonated, the beer really froths up as it hits my tongue. The beer is really dry as well, this really downplays any noticeable citrus notes and instead the hop flavors focus on resinous notes of pine, herbs and even a menthol like note. The hops really linger on in the finish, without some perceived malt sweetness to coat the tongue and round out the flavors, the hops contribute to an astringent, mouth coating, raw, green bitterness. This bitterness is fairly aggressive, though not overwhelming. A touch of citrus character is noticeable as grapefruit, but it is really overwhelmed by the resinous hop character.

Despite that an IPA should be about dominant hop character, a good one really does need a fair amount of supporting malt to accentuate & balance the aggressive hop levels. This certainly has the hop character, but is missing that crucial malt sweetness that would make this far more enjoyable. As is, it is a nice enough beer, but it is just a little too unbalanced for me.

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

Poured an orange to copper color, very generous and pillowy initial head with good retention, nice lacing, rings and semi-continous coverings with each sip. The aroma was floral hops primarily. The flavor was floral and soapy hop notes, light fruity esters, a touch of citrus. This thing finished pretty bitter with each sip, not much malt to support it, oranges underneath, but too much perfume. Mouthfeel was full bodied.