Liberal Cup Old Hallow Ale IPA

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

Sampled on-tap 05-22-2004 at The Great Lost Bear.

My first pint of the afternoon, while hanging out with some of the locals. And while I had never heard of Liberal Cup before, I can say that I was reasonably impressed with this first impression of their beers.

Quite a bit darker than what I normally expect from an IPA -- almost a Brown Ale in appearence.

In addition, the nose wasn't so much hoppy as it was malty (hints of chocolate?), with the hops making their apearence only a bit later in the game, when I had this beer damn-near room temperature.

But any quirks that I noticed with this beer at first faded away once it got to my taste buds. This is no hop monster, by any stretch of the imagination. But what hops this beer does have it takes full advantage of, with the malt relugated to the supporting role (as it should for the style, IMO).

A nice back-end dryness to this beer, which makes for a nicely quaffable pint. Has something of a identity crisis, in that it seems to straddle both sides of the Brown Ale/IPA fence. But this still makes for an interesting beer, and one that I'm glad crossed my path. Recommended.
//TB