Rush River BubbleJack IPA

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 10

OMG! besides the cloudy and the unfiltered this beer is nirvanna. After the Green 19 (Hopasaurus Rex) and maybe even competing with the Deschutes brewery I cannot believe this one. malty with a twist of chocolate, marijuana-y with a bitter and a tingly malt back flavor. This one like Green 19 or Crooked tree has layers of hops and doesnt sit still in one place. This is the closest thing to a Portland IPA that I have found in Wisconsin. Dank!

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

Pours out in a hazy golden colour with a rich dense white foam. Crispy notes of lemon-zest with mellow undertones of straw, oranges and soap. Medium-bodied with notes of grapefruit, lemon-zest and straw. Medium-bitter finish of grass. Not bad, a rather crisp but still a subtle example with plenty of lemon-zest.

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

Pours a yellow/golden with white head. Hops dominate the aroma--grapefruit, pine, lemon all noticeable. Very smooth with bitter, hoppy taste and bitter aftertaste. Simple but delicious. edit 10/19/12--Just enjoyed a pint from a lavender-infused cask of Bubblejack. Smooth, almost creamy, still plenty of citrusy hops but with a blanket of lavender in both taste and aroma. Way better than Sierra Nevada's floral IPA.

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

Pours a clear orange colour with a medium sized white head. Creamy on the palate. Not a whole lot of hops, or at least as much as one would expect for an IPA. Slightly piney with grapefruit, lime and soft spicey flavors.

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

November 2007 Bottle Date, Sampled December 2007
Pours with an initially two-finger thick, frothy, pale tan colored head that sits on top of an almost brilliantly clear, copper hued beer. The aroma is quite strange; it smells like some artificially flavored bubble gum. Ah, as I go in for a closer smell of the aroma it becomes clear that this particular smell comes from a mix of citrus hop notes and a rampant case of diacetyl. Buttery, slightly rancid, with notes of butterscotch too, it can be hard to get at the usual IPA aromatics under this assault. If you dig for it you can separate out some of the sweet, fruity citrus notes as well as some biscuit like malt aromatics.

Up front this beer is quite hoppy, with a light malt sweetness which accentuates flavors of grapefruit and orange zest. The beer continues with a powerful bitterness that unfortunately can't quite mask the reek of buttery diacetyl. The flavor is not quite as dominated by the diacetyl as the aroma is, but it still plays a huge role here and really gets in the way of the biting, dominant hop character. The diacetyl actually seems to make the bitterness quite harsh and even astringent.

I get the sense that this was a decent, quite hoppy IPA, unfortunately I just cant get to that beer due to the poor yeast management. I am a bit sensitive to diacetyl, but the levels in this beer are just way too much.

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

A cloudy yellow/orange appearance. The aroma consists of hay, lemons, and oranges. The flavor is somewhat bitter with a very lemoney flavor. Not very complex for an IPA but it will work in a pinch I guess.